“Reading is the Road to Knowledge and Truth”
Biblioteca
Comunitaria
TZ´UNUN YA´
Community Center for Social and Educational Exchange
Why a Community Library in Tzununá?
Tzununá is a town of more than 2000 inhabitants, and is located on the shores of Lake Atitlán and belonging to the municipality of Santa Cruz la Laguna, but it does not have a community library to support the educational and cultural needs of the community. There is no place for children, adolescents and adults to read and do research.
A library could play a decisive role in the development of the community, the maintenance of its traditions, the education of its children, and the enhancement of adult learning.
A library will encourage the habit of reading in young people and – as a cultural center -- help fight against substance abuse and inactivity.
Tzununá is primarily a town of indigenous Maya people who speak Kaqchikel. The Library appreciates this as added value and will take advantage of this richness of cultural diversity.
Conservation of the oral tradition
Crucial to the development of a library in an indigenous area is the statement: Oral tradition has transmitted for many generations the community’s values and its knowledge. Thus the Library will provide support for bilingual (Kaqchikel and Spanish) education and will establish space where local culture and the oral tradition can be recovered, preserved and celebrated.
Contacts, questions and donations
Individuals and groups can support the library by sending books, toys and games and/or donating money for their purchase. Please send toys made of wood, that do not use batteries, and are not noisy.
We suggest that when you send books you take into account the Kaqchikel Maya culture of Tzununá and Guatemala.
Until the formation of the library committee, the following people have volunteered to support the implementation of the library:
María Castells-Arrosa, Lomas de Tzununá
Phone (00502) 5201-8272
Ignacio Tepaz, Aldea Tzununá, Phone (00502) 58230959
To send an email: biblioteca@tzununa.org
Coming web page: www.tzununa.org
See the Amazon wish list
The library will be the responsibility of a committee made up of residents of Tzununá and will be integrated into a non-profit organization.
Mission
Promote reading, curiosity and investigation, develop creativity and preserve cultural traditions, through a free service with a wide community involvement
Vision
Become a model and inspiration for the community and have the financial stability to achieve high quality services
Official Rural Mixta School of Tzununá
At a meeting of the parents in the local school more than 50 people declared that a community library is of utmost importance to their community and is considered a vital need.
Within four months of beginning activities a meeting with the Tzununá community will be organized to define: A library: why, how, for and with whom? for what?
Provision of Services:
1. Without walls: the library will be part of the Community.
2.Service to the Community: The library will recognize that it has a duty to its users.
3.Independence: The library will not discriminate on the basis of political, ethnic or religious beliefs.
4.Literacy: The library will help to raise the literacy rate of the population of Tzununá.
5. A Focus for the Community: The library will be a meeting place for the community.
6. Activities: The library will organize cultural activities, story hours for girls and boys, and discussion groups and educational workshops for the community to help disseminate information.
7. In the future, the library will offer a lending service, a reading room, a play space for children and internet connection.
The Auxiliary of the Municipality of Santa Cruz la Laguna collaborates with and supports the Library by providing a physical place for it in its municipal buildings in Tzununá