Benidorm activates ‘BiblioRAC’, the project of books at home for people over 65 and vulnerable people

The Councils of Historical and Cultural Heritage and Citizen Participation of Benidorm City Council will activate in the coming weeks 'BiblioRAC', a project of books at home focused on people over 65 years of age and / or vulnerable to risk that "as a consequence of the pandemic or due to health and age issues they cannot travel to the city libraries to enjoy and cultivate their reading habits or to make use of the loan service ”. This has been stated by the councillors of both areas, Ana Pellicer, who has indicated that "this initiative arises after we have detected that part of the users of the municipal network of libraries of a certain age group have reduced their attendance at the facilities since their reopening, although they have shown us their interest in continuing to access the bibliographic and audiovisual collections ”.

According to the data provided by the councilor, "the potential number of library user population that this service could reach is about 1,600 people, which are those in the age group of 65 years or older, if well a percentage of them continue to go regularly to the library facilities ”. Likewise, he pointed out that “based on a survey we have carried out among users of that age group, around 90% have been very receptive to its implementation, which invites us to think that BiblioRAC is going to have good reception'".

Pellicer explained that “we are going to channel this project through the municipal network of libraries and the Collective Help Network, #RAC, which emerged at the beginning of the pandemic, of which more than 500 volunteers are part and that in these months it has not ceased to render invaluable service to all those who have needed it ”. The #RAC - she has deepened - is “a network that was born at a certain time to provide a specific service and that can now be diversified to meet other citizen needs, such as that required by people who, due to their age or health conditions, do not they can travel to make use of the library service ”.

The material available for this service is that of the network's own catalog accessible from the page https://xlpv.gva.es/abnopac/. The request for the material can be made through the WhatsApp channel of the Library Network (628 128 849), by phone at 965 855 098 or through the email library@benidorm.org. Once the request has been made by any of these means, a volunteer from the #RAC will take the works of interest to the applicant to the home and will return to pick them up after the loan period.

The number of works available for loan through this service is a maximum of 6, which can be combined between book material and audiovisuals.

How to participate in the project

#RAC volunteers who want to join the project should communicate it by email to the address covidbenidorm@gmail.com. Similarly, those who want to join 'BiblioRAC' but are not yet part of the network, can register through the link https://benidorm.org/es/incidencia/campana-ayuda-contra-el-coronavirus by marking the project option.

Likewise, people at risk who want to be users of the project should send an email to library@benidorm.org stating their situation. If they are not yet registered as users of the municipal library network, they will be registered and a reader number will be assigned to them.