Η Kythera Municipal Library remains closed for 9 years*, depriving citizens and student youth of a valuable space of culture and knowledge. A lost decade will soon be completed for the project that took flesh and blood under the Mayoralty of Theodoros Koukoulis. While its operation remains a «summer night's dream», the Municipality of Kythera approves expenditure for its «maintenance», with a recent decision to allocate 20,000 euros for 2024 and an additional 5,221 euros for 2025. However, there is no provision for staffing the Library with the necessary personnel to open its doors to the public. The real question that needs to be answered is simple: what is maintained in a Library that is not functioning?;
Need for staff, not just for maintenance
The function of a library does not only require a building and books; it requires people. A librarian or even a part-time teacher could take over the operation of the Library, offering the residents and children of Kythera access to a place of study, information and culture.
Instead, the funds are channelled exclusively into «maintenance» work on a building that remains inactive, while the lack of staff makes it impossible to use. This management shows a clear preference for formal and superficial expenditure, rather than a genuine investment in culture and knowledge. And let us leave aside for the moment a few thousand dollars wasted on public relations meetings, etc., etc.
A missed opportunity for youth and citizens
The Kythera Municipal Library could become a centre of learning and culture for the island, especially for students and young people, who have limited access to such services. Instead of spending money on unnecessary expenses or projects that do not directly affect the daily lives of residents, investing in staff for the Library could drastically change the picture.
Priorities that need to change
To approve funds for the maintenance of a closed building when no money is available for its operation is a sign of poor prioritisation. Local government must show that it cares about the needs of the local community by investing where it is really needed.
The reopening of the Library is not a luxury; it is a necessity. A functioning Library could bring life to the island, enhancing education and cultural development. The people of Kythera deserve better management of resources, focusing on their real needs. Because knowledge and civilisation cannot wait any longer.
*The Library has been closed since 2015, except for short periods of occasional employment of unemployed people with a program of the OAED.
