Young people in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa can now let their imaginations take flight at a new library built into a converted airplane.

Part of the borough’s “Utopias” cultural program, which aims to transform public spaces in the notoriously unsafe neighborhood, the Boeing 737 houses 26 internet-connected computers with which readers can access 25,000 titles.

The library also has a collection of printed books for children and young people, audio books and a semiprofessional flight simulator. Another 40 computers will be installed in facilities outside the plane and there will also be free wifi.

In addition to this 230-book collection, which will gradually increase, readers will also be able to access titles digitally in PDF form and audiobooks both online and on CDs.

Iztapalapa Mayor Clara Brugada Molina announced the opening of the library, called Volando a la Utopía (Flying to Utopia), in a tweet on Sunday.

“When we bet on reading and books, we bet on knowledge, education, science and culture; we invest in the present, but build for the future. #VolandoALaUTOPÍA aims to bring children and young people closer to discovering the world through words,” she said.

Brugada hopes the library will revive a part of the borough that was previously a hangout for people using drugs and alcohol.

“We want all girls and boys to come and read at the #AirplaneLibrary and want the community to appropriate this space,” she said in another tweet.

She also announced the development of a boat library, which will have 30 “cabins” made from repurposed shipping containers, currently under construction in another part of the borough.

The airplane library is not a new concept. A converted Boeing 727 has served as a library in Ciudad Hidalgo, Michoacán, since 2018.

Source: El Financiero (sp)