Frontera NorteSur April  2003

Mexicali: 19 Libraries, 95,000 Books

The mayor of Mexicali, Jaime Díaz Ochoa, opened the city's 19th library on Thursday, March 20, 2003. Located in the Orizaba neighborhood, the library is part of the Nana Chela Cultural Center. The library was built after area residents requested the facility from the mayor's office. Both the city's cultural and social development offices aided in the project. 

Aglae Margalli, head of Mexicali's library department, says that each of the city's libraries receives an average of 100 visitors per day. The libraries each have between 1,500 and 5,000 books with a total of approximately 95,000 books for a city of nearly 800,000 people. 

By comparison, El Paso, Texas, has a main library, nine branches and a bookmobile for its population of approximately 700,000. According to Glenda Roberts, catalog librarian at the El Paso Public Library, the El Paso library system has over 623,000 volumes and nearly 230,000 paperback books. In all, when volumes, paperbacks, government documents, videos, recordings, children's books and other sources are considered, the El Paso library system has over one million items. 

In Mexicali, Margalli says that the books in highest demand are works of literature, history, technology and science. However, in rural parts of the community, she says that there is a lot of demand for books related to agriculture. 

While Mexicali libraries accept donations, most of their books are sent to them through federal and state programs, said Margarita Mercado Medina, the city's cultural director. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), March 21, 2003. Article by José. M. Yépiz.

UABC Restructures: Less Administrative Staff, Less Part-Time Instructors

With a yearly budget of over 1.2 billion pesos (US$110 million), the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California has an income greater than four of the state's five major cities, according to an article in the Tijuana newspaper Frontera. Of this sum, 72% (902 million pesos) is spent on staff and educators salaries. 

To help improve education in the UABC system, the university administration wants to change the way it spends its money. Currently, UABC employs 1,582 administrative employees, 2,187 part-time instructors that are contracted to teach individual courses and only 687 full-time instructors. 

Gabriel Estrella Valenzuela, the secretary general of UABC, said that the university's objective is to have a greater number of full-time instructors that dedicate themselves to teaching and research. It is also believed that full-time hires are more dedicated to UABC and that the university will benefit by having more of them in its ranks.

While firm numbers related to reductions in administrative staff and part-time educators will not be announced for a few more days, the university did state that the number of full-time instructors should equal or exceed the number of part-timers by the end of the reorganization. 

As is the case with universities across Mexico, UABC also wants to better its instructors' credentials. Soon, all instructors will be required to have at least a master's degree. Those without postgraduate degrees will receive aid from the university to continue their educations. 

Already this year 40 new full-time instructors were hired and an unspecified number of part-time positions was eliminated. 

One instructor that was fired appealed the loss of her job to a judge but she did not receive the protection of the court. Two other instructors that were let go from their jobs will appear in front of a labor arbitration board on February 25, 2003. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), February 24, 2003. Article by Daniel Salinas. 

Adult Education in Tamaulipas

Literacy campaign

Tamaulipas will spend 71 million pesos this year (approximately US$6.5 million) on adult literacy education, according to Pedro Morales de la Fuente of the Instituto Tamaulipeco para Educación de los Adultos (Tamaulipas Institute for Adult Education, ITEA). Reading courses for adults will take place in the state's 40 literacy attention centers. Morales said the Instituto's aim this year is to reach 40,000 adults. 

Currently, Tamaulipas has the seventh-worst illiteracy rate in Mexico with 105,000 illiterate adults. Another 326,000 state residents have not completed elementary school (primaria) and 415,000 more have not finished junior high (secundaria). Morales said that the Instituto also seeks to reach these adults. 

Of the 71 million pesos being spent on eradicating adult illiteracy this year in Tamaulipas, 40 million are from state government and 31 million are from the federal government. Morales noted that most of the ITEA money is being spent along the US-Mexico border.