ITINERANT LIBRARY

In 1953, the writer Branquinho Fonseca started a mobile library, which consisted of a trailer pulled by his own car. This intriguing experience began before the much loved Calouste Gulbenkian Itinerant Libraries, which, from 1958, made reading available to the most vulnerable areas in Portugal. As Lisbon was not part of the Foundation’s itinerary, and wishing to take books and reading to all the people, the Lisbon City Council took it upon itself, in 1961, to establish its own Itinerant Library Service.

Half a century later, the Itinerant Library currently consists of a 7-meter van, equipped with shelves, storage benches, folding and extendable tables, computers, WI-Fi and a reception counter, and is regularly visited and welcomed by several parishes in the city, having become an integral part of the routine of its people.

Besides the parishes it visits and pursuing the objectives established when it was first conceived, the Library also regularly serves the vulnerable, taking for example the partnership it holds with the Prisons, the Navarro da Paiva Education Centre, the Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital, Auroa Radio, Júlio de Matos Hospital, or the Lisbon Heath Complex.

We are the Itinerant Library and, as it was in the past, we continue to take books and dreams, on wheels, to all those who welcome us. Thank you!