I apologize for the limited amount of posts there have been here lately. Although I am back from vacation, I am in the midst of some pretty big changes. I am preparing to leave for Argentina for an undetermined amount of time. For this reason (and a couple of others), the future of LibrarianActivist is a little uncertain at this point. However, my hope is that I will be able to keep reporting on some political and social justice issues, but maybe also on the reality of libraries and librarianship in South America. However, this remains uncertain, since I am still unsure as to how this trip will unfold. In the meantime, thanks for your patience…
October 7th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
HI!
I’ve just found out about your weblog, and I was just scanning through some postings when I found your postings about Argentina.
Anyways, I just thought I’d send you a quick note because I think we might have a few things in common. I am also interested in some of the same issues you talk about in your blog, I am starting library school in January at UBC, and I come from Argentina.
I think you will find the library field quite depressing in Argentina. I had had a few “traumatic” experiences as a library patron in the past. One was trying to ge in the Natiional Libarry when I was 15 years old, and being told that I had to wait until I was 18 to get in. Another one was browsing a card catalog at UBA’s Faculatd de Ciencias Sociales to find out that we had very few useful items for my thesis.
Anyways, all this seems silly when you think that people are starving there. Then your priorities change. You think: feed the people first, books will come later.
I’d love to hear more about your experience in Argentina.
Cheers, Valeria