La xarxa de bibliobusos de la diputació de Barcelona: servei als municipis menors de 3.000 habitants.

The Diputació de Barcelona supports the municipalities in the creation and development of library services in the province, leading the Network of Municipal Libraries. With the aim of offering the same opportunities for access to knowledge and culture as provided by the stable libraries of large populations, in 1995 a Library Bus Plan was drawn up in order to provide a library alternative to the populations of less than 3,000 inhabitants. The Plan provided for, in 10 years, the provision of 9 library buses that made it possible to offer service to 101 municipalities with between 300 and 3,000 inhabitants. Since then, work has been done to update the service, renew the existing mobile fleet, incorporate new services and technologies and improve accessibility.

The need to offer public reading to 100% of the municipalities with a quality service is presented as a challenge that cannot be waived for the Provincial Council, which wants to guarantee the cultural rights of all people. In 2023, two new light vehicles will be added to the existing library bus network to bring the public reading service to municipalities with less than 300 inhabitants.

The service model and the management model of the Library Bus Network are explained, and some future challenges are analysed.