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From Garbage Comes a Library and an Orchestra

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Cindy Walbridge

Feb 8, 2022

Turkey and Colombia

Categories:

Library, Reading, Education, Music, Orchestra

In this article dated May 6, 2021, by Pop-Up City, an agency for urban transformation based in Amsterdam, sanitation workers in the Çankaya district of Turkey's capital Ankara noticed books discarded in the trash. The workers began to pick the books out of the trash and save them. They called them "abandoned" books. Their collection of books continued to grow.


Eventually, they needed to find a place to put their growing collection. They decided to display the books for the public to browse and read them. The sanitation department had at its disposal an abandoned brick factory. The workers decided to clean it up, and in 2017 they opened it for the public. People come here now to read books, meet friends, have tea, meet reading groups, and participate in other social activities. Their book collection gained recognition throughout Cankaya, and residents dropped off more books at the old brick factory. To date, there are over 30,000 books in the makeshift library. Their collection of books was so extensive that they planned a library service with a converted garbage truck. It has not been on the road yet because of Covid-19.


Next, the sanitation workers gathered musical instruments and parts discarded in the city's trash. The workers began to repair and build musical instruments and formed an orchestra.


A former garbage collector, José Alberto Gutiérrez, formed a similar grassroots project in Bogota, Columbia. Gutierrez spent the last 20 years collecting discarded books while working the night shift. With 13 million residents, Bogota had only nine public libraries, one library for about every 1.5 million residents! Jose and his family created a library called "La Fuerza de las Palabras" (The Strength of Word), serving Bogota.


Both the libraries in Ankara and Bogota started with humble roots. They grew into a well-loved resource in their respective communities. In Bogota, Jose began to distribute books to returning military and donated to the indigenous community of Huitotacueimani in the south of Columbia.


Many libraries (and music programs in schools) worldwide are either non-existent or woefully underfunded. This situation is unfortunate since reading and accessing books (and learning music) benefits society in so many ways. Take a closer look at your community. Can you make a difference?

Source:

Source:

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Catalog #:

0122.107.01.020822

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