Colombian Winner of Guust van Wesemael Literacy Prize 2001

IFLA is pleased to announce that the Culture and Libraries Department of COMFENALCO at Medellin,Colombia, is the winner of the Guust van Wesemael Literacy Prize 2001.

The objective of this award of 6,000 Dutch guilders is to sponsor a public or school library in a developing country to perform activities in the field of literacy: collection development, promotion, training, policy development or otherwise.

In Colombia there are currently more than 50 Family Compensation Bureaus: private social security entities that work in different fields to improve the quality of life of the people. These bureaus own 120 public libraries throughout the country. Although they belong to the private sector, these libraries serve the whole community and work hand in hand with the country's other public libraries, co-ordinated by the Ministry of Culture.

Comfenalco is one of these Family Compensation Bureaus; its Culture and Libraries Department was set up in 1979. Reading promotion is high on its list of objectives. The programmes in this field are in two main areas: teacher's training and increased access possibilities to books.

On hearing the news of the Prize, Gloria Rodriguez, Head of the Comfenalco Culture and Libraries Department, was very gladly surprised. She stated that the money will be used for writing and publishing two booklets. One would be directed to people in charge of children's collections, the other would be aimed at activities for adults responsible for book collections in factories and companies.

The Jury of the Guust van Wesemael Literacy Prize 2001 consisted of Adèle Fasick (Chair), Kay Raseroka and Glenys Willars. They were unanimous in their choice of the proposal submitted by the Colombian colleagues.

This Prize was established in 1991 by IFLA's Executive Board to commemorate the late Guust van Wesemael, Coordinator of IFLA's Professional Activities from 1979 to 1990 and Deputy Secretary General of IFLA from 1979 to 1991. Funded by donations, the Guust van Wesemael Literacy Prize has been awarded biennially since 1997.