The Biblioburro (The donkey library) is a traveling library that distributes

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

to patrons from the backs of two

donkeys The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...

, Alfa and Beto. The program was created in La Gloria,

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, by Luis Soriano.Romero, Simon
"Acclaimed Colombian Institution Has 4,800 Books and 10 Legs"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', October 19, 2008. Accessed October 20, 2008. The biblioburro operates within the central municipalities of the

Department of Magdalena Magdalena () is a department of Colombia, located in the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea, with more than 1.3 million people. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Magdalena River. The depart ...

, on Colombia's

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

shore. Soriano became fascinated with reading as a child and obtained a

college degree An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions often offer degrees at various levels, usually divided into und ...

Spanish literature Spanish literature is literature ( Spanish poetry, prose, and drama) written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the Kingdom of Spain. Its development coincides and frequently intersects with that of other ...

after studying with a professor who visited his village twice a month.Reel, Monte
"A Four-Legged Drive To Help Rural Readers"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', September 5, 2005. Accessed October 20, 2008. A primary school teacher by profession, Soriano developed the idea after witnessing first-hand the power reading had on his students, most of whom had lived through intense life conflicts at a young age. Starting in the late 1990s, Soriano traveled to communities in Colombia's

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...

s with a portable library, which began with 70 books. Soriano wrote to

Juan Gossaín Juan Antonio Gossaín Abdallah (born January 17, 1949) is a Colombian radio national news director, chief editor, and journalist, as well as a novelist. He wrote the novel "The Ballad of María Abdala." He is well known for directing the RCN Rad ...

, a Colombian journalist and writer, after having heard him read excerpts from his novel ''The Ballad of Maria Abdala'' on a radio program. Soriano asked Gossaín for a copy of his book to be distributed on the Biblioburro, details that Gossaín broadcast on his radio program. The response created a flood of book donations and Soriano's collection soon expanded to 4,800 volumes. As of November 2009, a library building next to Soriano's house has been completed funded in part by donations from the public, and it opened as the first library in La Gloria. Additional funding is also provided by the director of a community library, located nearly from the Caribbean shore in Santa Maria, who hired Soriano as a satellite employee in order to share a portion of its US $7,000 annual budget. Children's adventure stories have remained one of the most popular items distributed by the Biblioburros. In addition to encyclopedia volumes, novels, and medical texts, other items distributed by the Biblioburro include

Horacio Quiroga Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza (31 December 1878 – 19 February 1937) was a Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer. The jungle settings of his stories emphasized the conflict between humans and nature. His portrayals of mental ...

's animal fable ''Anaconda'', the Dictionary of the Spanish Language of the Royal Spanish Academy ('' Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española'') and a number of ''

Time–Life Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and direct marketeer seller ...

'' travel pictorial books. Books lost from the collection include a sex education manual and a copy of

Laura Esquivel Laura Beatriz Esquivel Valdés (born 30 September 1950) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter and politician, who served in the Chamber of Deputies for the Morena Party from 2015 to 2018. Her first novel ''Como agua para chocolate'' ('' Like Wat ...

's 1989 novel '' Like Water for Chocolate'', both of which were not returned by borrowers. A copy of

Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho de Souza ( , ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His 1988 novel '' The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller. Early life Paulo Coelho ...

's 1990 novel '' Brida'' was stolen by bandits, who tied up Soriano after attempting to rob him and discovered he had no money. Colombian documentary filmmaker Carlos Rendón Zipagauta has made a film that tells the story of Soriano and the Biblioburros. In June 2012, Soriano had a leg amputated after an accident involving one of his burros, but as of January 2013 he continued, committed to his work.

References

External links

Ayoka short filmBiblioburro blogBiblioburro Rocketboom Video
*
PBS POV: Biblioburro Documentary and lesson plans
{{Authority control Culture of Colombia Libraries in Colombia Mobile libraries Donkeys

See also

References

External links