María del Carme Ribé i Ferré (1920–1991) was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

, writer, and cultural activist. Ribé was born in

Reus Reus () is the capital of Baix Camp, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The area has always been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental importance at the time of the Phylloxera plague. Nowadays it is k ...

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...

, but moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

at the age of 9. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

in 1937, as a student athlete she broke the Spanish record for the

200-meter dash The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

. After the Civil War ended, the victorious regime withdrew recognition of her title. In 1938 Ribé entered

library school Education for librarianship, including for paraprofessional library workers, varies around the world, and has changed over time. In recent decades, many institutions offering librarianship education have changed their names to reflect the shift from ...

, and in 1941 she passed her qualifying exams and became a librarian. She worked in the private library of Spanish sports minister and

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

president

Juan Antonio Samaranch Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquess of Samaranch (Catalan: ''Joan Antoni Samaranch i Torelló'', ; 17 July 1920 – 21 April 2010) was a Spanish sports administrator under the Franco regime (1973–1977) who served as the seventh Pre ...

, as well as in the cataloging and acquisitions department of the Biblioteca de Catalunya (National Library of Catalonia). In addition to her work as a librarian, Ribé authored a novel called ''Del dia a la nit'' (''From Day to Night'', 1968) and, with Teresa Rovira i Comas, ''Bibliografía histórica del libro infantil en catalán'' (''Historical Bibliography of Children's Literature in Catalan'', 1972). She won the

Prudenci Bertrana Prize The Prudenci Bertrana Prize ( ca, Premi Prudenci Bertrana, ) is a literary award for novels written in Catalan. It has been awarded annually since 1968 in honour of the Catalan author Prudenci Bertrana (1867–1941). The winner receives €42,000, ...

for an autobiographical work, ''Girasol'', a testimonial of the first days of the occupation of Barcelona by

Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

troops. She also advocated and disseminated Catalan culture. Ribé died in Barcelona in 1991 at the age of 70. A street in Reus is named after her.Tricaz, Enric. ''Homes i dones pels carrers de Reus''. Valls: Cossetània, 2010, p. 30. .

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OCLC WorldCat Identity
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carme Ribe i Ferre, Maria 1920 births 1991 deaths Academics from Catalonia Activists from Catalonia Women writers from Catalonia Spanish librarians Spanish women librarians