It was in 2018 when the new management of the Puçol School Museum, together with the usual technical team, decided to give a 360º turn to its reference library: why not move the novel, the essay, the old manuals to another space in the museum? , etc. and create a single set, mainly ethnography, for public consultation by any interested person? And we got down to work, thanks to the advice of the then head of the Elche library network, Carmen Gutiérrez, and her replacement in office, Luis Navarro, who outlined the way forward for us.

Five years later -with a pandemic, confinement and an economic crisis involved, and already being a foundation-, this ethnographic library is a reality. Formed today by 5,158 titles, these focus on the investigation of cultural practices and social behaviors of our environment; They are eminently local and provincial information books, but we find publications from other peninsular territories.

From this moment on, the Puçol ethnographic library can be consulted by anyone who requests to do so.

The help of volunteers and internship students has been essential for the fine-tuning of the library, carrying out the registration and filing of each volume. We cannot fail to mention all those who have spent hours between these books: José Luis González Palomera (2018-2021), Jorge Alfonso Álvarez (2021), Rubén Esclapez (2022), Cristina Cuadrado (2022), Susi Ferrández (2022), Laura Castaño (2022) and Daniel Casado (2022). Nor can we forget all the people, institutions and donor entities, without whose bibliographic contributions, this space would not have been possible.

The Puçol library -as well as the rest of the libraries- is a living space in several ways. The first of these refers to the fact that, as publications continue to arrive at the museum -also through the acquisition and exchange of publications-, the volumes of the library will increase over time; today there are 5,158, tomorrow, who knows... And another meaning is related to the educational project that the museum and the school have been developing for years. In the ethnographic library, the interested party will also find the school library, where boys and girls from the center can go to consult books. So, perhaps, on a day of ethnographic consultation, one will come across a couple of children reading happily on the library floor. An image that we are very used to, but that we understand may seem curious to other users.

In short, this new space in the Puçol School Museum will be open from now on to anyone interested in asking questions, from Monday to Friday during normal opening hours (from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) and by appointment. Dare to know, visit and soak up this new journey of Puçol!

Author: Marian Tristán, coordinator of the School Museum.