Parla integrates into the Regional Catalog and extends the Single Card

The Parla City Council and the Community of Madrid have signed a collaboration agreement for the promotion and development of library services in the municipality within the framework of the Public Reading Services Network of the Community of Madrid. The agreement was signed on September 2, 2026, and is published in the BOCM no. 236, of October 3, 2026, section I.D) Announcements, page 109 (reference BOCM-20261003-13). Through this, the residents of Parla are integrated into the Regional Catalog and will be able to use the Single Library Card throughout the network.

Who signs and under what legal protection

The agreement is signed by the Director General of Cultural Heritage and the Spanish Language Office, Bartolomé González Jiménez, by delegation of Order 550/2026, of March 30, and the Mayor-President of the Parla City Council, Ramón Jurado Rodríguez, authorized by the agreement of the Plenary of the Corporation on November 4, 2025.

The legal basis of the agreement is Law 7/2023, of March 30, on Books, Reading, and Bibliographic Heritage of the Community of Madrid, whose article 4.e) defines the Public Reading Services Network as an organized and coordinated set of library services under the principle of free and open access. The regional competence corresponds to the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage and the Spanish Language Office according to Decree 264/2023, of December 5, and the local competence to the municipality, pursuant to articles 25.2.m) and 26.1.b) of Law 7/1985, of April 2, Regulating the Bases of Local Government.

Which services are activated

The purpose of the agreement is cooperation in the planning, promotion, and boosting of library services in Parla as part of the regional network. The planned actions are:

• Coordination and use of the common integrated library management system (ABSYSNET or whatever may replace it).
• Extension of the Single Library Card among the users of the municipality.
• Access to transversal services such as inter-center loans and the loan of digital content.
• Advice and support in the planning of municipal library services.
• Cooperation in the collection of activity statistics and in the creation of the Map of the Public Reading Services Network.
• Promotion of reading, cultural activities, and preservation of Madrid’s bibliographic heritage.
• Training actions for the staff of the network centers, through Madrid Digital.

The Community of Madrid commits to disseminating the funds of the municipal collections through the Regional Catalog, coordinating the system, and facilitating professional training. The Parla City Council assumes the maintenance of its services, personnel, and equipment, and is obliged to provide service to any user with a Single Card, regardless of the library where they registered.

Validity, financing, and control

The agreement enters into force on the date of its signing and has a duration of four years, extendable by unanimous agreement of the parties for up to four additional years. It does not generate financial compensation between the administrations: the expenses that the Community of Madrid may assume will be charged to program 332A, subject to the existence of adequate and sufficient credit in each annual period.

Monitoring is the responsibility of a Joint Monitoring Commission composed of the Deputy Director General of Books, the Head of the Technical Coordination Area of said Deputy Directorate General, and two representatives of the Parla City Council. The agreement is subject to Law 40/2015, of October 1, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector, and Decree 48/2019, of June 10, which regulates the contractual activity of the Community of Madrid.

Regarding data protection, both parties will act as joint controllers of the processing relating to the Single Card and transversal services, in accordance with Article 26 of the GDPR and Article 29 of the LOPDGDD, according to the agreement set out in Annex I.

Background

This is not the first time that both administrations have cooperated in this field. On August 30, 2016, they signed an agreement for the integration of the municipal catalog into the regional collective catalog and the implementation of the Single Card in the library services of Parla, whose commitments and objectives were deemed fulfilled. The new text responds, according to the document itself, to reasons of efficiency, management effectiveness, and savings in the maintenance of facilities, in addition to the objective of offering a richer catalog and avoiding duplication in transversal tools.

The impact for the readers of Parla is direct: the Single Card, which is free of charge and requested voluntarily, becomes the means of coordinated access to the funds of all libraries integrated into the Regional Catalog, regardless of the municipality of residence. Residents thus gain access to a wider catalog, inter-center loans, and digital loans, and the municipality formally joins the structure of the region’s public reading system.

Source: BOCM, no. 236, of October 3, 2026, section I.D) Announcements, page 109 (official reference: BOCM-20261003-13).