The new premises feature a kid’s area and even more technology, as the new Amazon Echo devices with Alexa.
A Wish List on Amazon.it now allows users to donate one or more items to support the Library of Amatrice.
Amatrice (RI), May 15, 2019 – The new home of the digital Library of Amatrice was inaugurated today. Amazon donated the Library to the city just a year ago and it has now found a new home at the Centro di Formazione professionale of Amatrice; furthermore, it has been enriched with additional services and devices to offer broader access to reading and to digital environment.
Writer and artist Fiore Manni, well known among teens and kids, took on the role of special ambassador for the event, involving Amatrice’s students in a reading session dedicated to her latest novel.
Born from the project ‘An Ebook for Amatrice’, the Library initially consisted of six containers and was located in the city center, opposite the Town Hall. Starting today, its services will be accessible to all citizens within a dedicated area in the Centro di Formazione Professionale of Amatrice, which reopened last March.
Renewing its support to the project, Amazon has enriched the Library by providing a full area dedicated to reading as well as to entertainment. An entire section of the Centro underwent restyling procedures: visitors will find a reading room equipped with paper books and Kindle e-readers; a children’s room, with soft rugs for playing games, books and an Amazon Echo Show device to enjoy video content as well, through its 10” HD screen. Finally, the library boasts now a multimedia room with additional Kindle e-readers, two Amazon Fire HD tablets, a PC, an audio amplification system, a TV equipped with an Amazon Fire TV Stick and an Amazon Echo device.
Visitor will have the chance to interact with Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service: they can enjoy all the potential of Alexa’s skills through Amazon’s Echo devices; for example, they can listen to the news of the day, learn new languages, or even control the room’s lighting system, which features colored bulbs that they can adjust just using their voice.
The reading room has been restyled with the support of Moto Guzzi World Club, no-profit association which has been reuniting owners of Aquile di Mandello since 2002, that donated books and new shelves.
Finally yet importantly, thanks to Amazon’s support, customers can donate one or more items to the Library of Amatrice through a Wish List (https://amzn.to/2VqIMl5) built on Amazon.it, sustaining its activities.
Amatrice’s Mayor, Filippo Palombini, took part in the inauguration and commented: ‘Library is synonym of knowledge and civil and social emancipation. It’s the place where the culture spreads, generation to generation, from father to son, the place where one can appreciate his roots and where the future’s consciousness grows. This is why I am particularly proud of our library’s opening, one year ago, with its digital and innovative profile. And I am even more proud to give it a new definite home. Definite as our city’s roots, which do not change, do not die, but live and grow every day. Amatrice’s community, from now on, can finally count on a gift from everyone, for everyone’
“We are happy to renew our support to Amatrice with the donation of this new library, which today finds its definite home. We believe in promoting the culture through the access to new technology, everywhere in Italy. Doing this in Amatrice, offering our support for the success of this new public meeting point, it’s a source of pride,” commented Giorgio Busnelli, Media Director Amazon.it and Amazon.es. “In addition to books, which represent the foundation of Amazon itself, we’ve decided to donate new devices and new tools to help young people to approach the digital world and succeed in the future.”
The digital library of Amatrice is part of the Amazon in the Community program, which aims at building long-term and innovative programs in the communities where Amazon operates.
