In every corner of Puçol there are books: patrimonial; old schoolchildren; of current ethnography; encyclopedias; manuals of medicine, law, accounting, botany...; novels - also in installments! -; lives of saints; party magazines; children's stories and comics; newspapers… This “is non-stop”, since every week -if not every day- we receive new donations to the museum, a high percentage of them consisting of various publications.

For example, during these last months, we have received several collections of interest. The Guerrero Castelló family donated numerous copies of the “Blanco y Negro” magazine, the majority corresponding to the first half of the 20th century; the donation also contained women's fashion magazines. Francisco Asencio donated numerous books, especially encyclopedias and school-themed ones. A few weeks ago a son of Manuela Coves brought a large collection of books about Elche and its surroundings. And this just to mention some of the most recent and voluminous donations…

There are several libraries that Puçol has, both in its facilities and in other dependencies that we manage. In the industrial area of ​​Carrús we keep, among others, encyclopaedias, manuals and some titles of which we already have a copy in the museum. Other works, such as the famous (and excellent!) Universal Illustrated Encyclopedia of Espasa-Calpe, with more than ninety volumes, is preserved in another of our spaces.

In the same museum facilities we have several spaces dedicated to the library:

Old background school library

This library is located in the internal office area, in which all the school textbooks of the past 20th century are classified by subject.

Heritage library

All the volumes prior to the year 1900 are located in the meeting room, a true treasure of bibliographical heritage.

Children's and youth library, and teaching library for consultation

In the 2020/2021 academic year, the school started the “La Mediateca” project, which consists of setting up a reference library for children and young people, so that students can borrow these books, and manuals for teachers , for teachers to make use of them. The project continues to this day, with the involvement of the current faculty and with the approval and financial support of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, within the "Programme for revitalizing school libraries and promoting reading".

Ethnographic Reference Library

The objective of this library -which is currently in the management process- is to offer any interested person a space for consultation and loan of ethnographic works, mainly local and provincial. A complete library for the investigation of our territory.

Libraries in other dependencies

In other internal spaces you will find the rest of the books, classified by theme: novels, history, geography, religious, tourism, art and music, advertising, economics... Here we also house some of the bequeathed libraries belonging to well-known characters in the municipality (Lola Puntes or Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza, among others).

As you can see, there is still a lot of work ahead… Luckily, we have an active volunteer workforce and, thanks to their constant collaboration, these library projects, especially the future ethnographic library, are moving forward.

With this tour of our bibliographic collections, we wanted to celebrate this year's Library Day with you, wishing we could show you the finished collections!

Author: Marian Tristán, coordinator of the School Museum.