This Friday, June 3rd, Técnico inaugurated the first Reading Booth, which was installed in the North Garden. “The idea is having here another point of communication of new ideas, connecting a little culture in its global with scientific culture through the books”, said Professor Miguel Amado, vice president of Técnico for the area of facilities and equipments, justifying that thus “the campus gets richer.”

Our “main purpose is to improve people’s lives through technology, in particular, in access to knowledge. They are already 20 years working on technological solutions for accessibility to communications”, said engineer Daniel Freitas, alumnus and current project manager of Fundação Altice Portugal.

Isabel Marcos, coordinator of the Biblioteca e Arquivo do Técnico (BIST) thanked the effort made by her team to make everything ready in a timely manner and assured that she “welcomed this project with pleasure” mentioning that “it’s not enough to have scientific books, but it is necessary to develop a taste for reading, which then leads to a taste for writing.”

Sebastião Alves, professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ) and author of several books, told a story regardung an English poem that spoke of “a martian who called a book a bird of a thousand wings” and led the audience through history from the time of papyrus, parchment, sheets with drawn or engraved letters, to digital media. But the writing, according to Professor Sebastião Alves “is the main, is the first support.”

Professor Rogério Colaço, president of Técnico and also an author himself, recalled his childhood when there were no libraries or reading spaces and said that “a book is always a trip. The value of books is that they are fantastic objects and transform us.”

The opening ceremony ended with a performance of two elements of Tuna Universitária do Instituto Superior Técnico (TUIST) with João Marques at the violin and João Soares, at the guitar.

The Reading Cabin will operate on a voluntary basis.