THE BOVA MUNICIPAL LIBRARY
The Bova Municipal Library offers users a welcoming and inclusive space, adequately lit in terms of both natural and artificial light, with appropriate signage, and easily accessible and barrier-free for use by people with disabilities. It is located between the former Church of the Immaculate Conception, which houses the Municipal Fund, and the basement/garden level of the Rohlfs Museum, which houses the Mosino Fund and the lecture/reading room.
The Civic Library of Bova, a municipality recognised by the Region of Calabria as a cultural (Bova is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, Orange Flag, Jewel of Italy,...) and natural attraction (Bova is the municipality of the Aspromonte National Park, which will be included in the UNESCO Geoparks network in April 2021), has to face the fact that it is located in a mountainous and peripheral village that has been subject to the phenomenon of depopulation since the post-war period. Therefore, its cultural offer is not limited to the historical function of libraries, but is open to a wider meaning. It aims to be a place of social cohesion, especially when the village is less "alive" in winter, and to be in step with the digital skills of its users, but also close to the dimension of social life.
THE LIBRARY: A PLACE OF SOCIAL COHESION
It is a library that can be visited to meet other people, to have a chat, to read the newspaper, to attend a public meeting, to play. It is a library that wants to be experienced as an everyday, domestic, friendly place, almost an offshoot of the home. It is a library that wants to make its users feel at home and have a pleasant stay, because it does not live so much from the information needs of its users as from the social, leisure, cultural and creative/recreational needs of the community.
In this innovative dimension, the Bova Civic Library also promotes the combination of culture and nature, starting from the ancient Borgo, a natural site rich in culture and biodiversity, in order to "spread" cultural activities in the precious rural landscape. To this end, the library combines many activities with the existing natural attractions (Aspromonte National Park and Geopark, rural landscapes, ancient palaces, old roads and mountain paths in the footsteps of the travellers of the 18th century Grand Tour...), recognised as their own by a community with a strong cultural identity, which needs not only to have functional and innovative meeting places "disseminated in the village", but also to strengthen the cultural and environmental sustainable offer unique to small Italian villages, for tourism purposes but also for its own socio-economic development.