BEACH LIBRARY

Library Administrator's Digest, May 2004 by Kerr, George

During our stay in Spain this winter we came across the latest service from Ayuntamiento (Town Council) of Benidorm - the "Beach Library" (Biblio-playa). The service is funded by the Town Council and supplied by the library service. Staff take turns to man the service point which is available free to any visitors to the town. The only condition is that users must read the material on the beach and return it each day at closing time - it can of course be borrowed next day again. Books and magazines are available (in seven languages), and special requests can be made for any materials in the stock of the library to be delivered to the beach library for the duration of your holiday. One of the other service points in the town has good collections of novels in the same seven languages and these may be borrowed for reading in your apartment or hotel, or supplied to the Beach Library for daily borrowing. Benidorm believes that this is a world first.

Just the job for West Lothian if we could only manage to have two successive rain free days.

Seriously, a nice touch by the local council for the town's 5 million visitors annually. Anytime I looked in, the pavilion was always pretty busy, so I guess they must struggle to cope in summer.

George Kerr, former director, West Lothian Library, Scotland