Aurora Díaz- Plaja i Contestí

Creator of the Port Works Service Library

Writer, journalist, critic, translator, lecturer, librarian and one of the people who have done the most for the dissemination of children’s books including the training of the little ones in times of serious educational deficiencies.

As a librarian she initially worked in Palma, and during the Civil War she was in charge of the Bookstore that delivered books to the Republican front. After the war she took charge of the organization of the libraries of Catalonia, among which the Children’s Library of the Ciutadella Park in Barcelona, which she ran between 1963 and 1973.

In Barceloneta, she created the Port Works Service Library in the 1940s. Aimed at children and young family members of port workers.
In 1982 she organized the first exhibition of children’s and young people’s books in Catalan, at the InternationaleJugendbibliothek München (Munich International Children’s and Youth Library).

As a writer, she published about forty titles for children, both in Catalan and Spanish, and maked adaptations of many classic and popular stories. At the same time, she developed literary criticism, regularly collaborating in different media: El Ciervo, Primeras Noticias, Hoy, among others, and also in scientific and cultural magazines such as El Món , Lluc , Faristol and Serra d’Or .

She was an honorary member of the Writters Association in Catalan Language ( EFTA) .

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