National Library pays tribute to librarians

National Library pays tribute to librarians
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 04/28/2014

The Pedro Henríquez Ureña National Library (BNPHU) paid tribute to librarians on the Librarian’s Day celebration with various activities, including the screening and subsequent discussion about the film “The Book Thief”, by Brian Percival, which took place in the Juan Bosch auditorium, and a commemorative cocktail in its reception area.

The work of organizing, preserving and exhibiting information resources in libraries and documentation centers makes librarians into one of the pillars supporting our cultural, educational and communications institutions, said the director of the BNPHU, Diómedes Núñez Polanco, during the ceremony.

Thank you for making it possible for the books, in all their formats and media, to get into the hands of the people, and for being role models for a society that is strengthened and is on its way towards development, he said.

The death of the brother of the main character in the story, Liesel, and then her separation from her mother, who is an exiled communist in Hitler’s Germany, is the engine that unleashes a cinematic plot full of optimism and light in the midst of the darkness of the dictatorships of the time, which proclaims and confirms the importance of books, reading and the words as instruments of individual and collective freedom.

In addition to Núñez Polanco, the following persons also participated in the conversation about “The Book Thief”: Fiora Cruz Carretero, Director of the National Film Library, as well as the National Theater Award, Iván García Guerra.

The Librarian’s Day celebration (April 23rd), approved by UNESCO and adopted in the Dominican Republic by Decree 17-01, 1979, emerged with the aim of promoting culture and the protection of intellectual property through copyrights. The Librarian’s Day coincides with the deaths of Miguel de Cervantes, William Shaskespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega.