By Mario Raimondi | Executive director
After a lot of work during the last years, today Rosario city has a network of 14 minilibraries installed. And this are great news. Vandalism, the big 'threat' of the project and fear from some skeptical people, was little. And profits were high, in terms of happiness and well being of the people in contact with them. It is forecasted than by 2030, 70% of people will live in cities. This is an important piece of information since we will need to build cities for people, cities that creates good moments and promote happiness. How do we actually 'feel' about our lifes. Cities can play a big role in this and must be regarded as more than engines of wealth, they must be viewed as systems that should be shaped to improve human well-being.
Public mini libraries promotes trust between the citizens, and trusting our neighbours, police, government and even total strangers has a huge influence on happiness -even more than income does-. There is an incredible amount of data that shows that access to quality public spaces with activities to do and public parks reduces depression, mental illnesses and violence. Therefore, these little libraries may be the top of the iceberg to rethink policy making that prepares cities for the future and puts human well-being in the center of the debate.
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