LibrarianActivist.org

Yesterday I visited Biblioteca Cordoba, a public library in the middle of the city, funded by the province of Cordoba. It’s a beautiful building inside and out. Unfortunately, when you enter, it’s simply a large room, with a dozen tables, one computer for a catalogue search (DOS) and one card catalogue. There are doors all around the room, behind which hide employees, books (closed stacks), meeting rooms for staff, etc. What’s more discouraging is the process for getting a library card. Like in some North American public libraries, you have to bring ID and proof of residence (utility bill). But you also have to have what they call a “warrantor”. This is someone, 21 years of age or older, with ID, proof of residence (a utility bill), and the warrantor’s last pay stub. They want to make sure that if you loose/destroy a book, someone will be able to pay for it, if you can’t.

Fortunately, this restrictive concept of “public library” is somewhat compensated by what are called popular libraries. Popular libraries, if I understood correctly, are created by interested people that wish to see a library in their community. Funding comes from many sources, from membership fees to Federal Government support (CONABIP). Some popular libraries are in indigent communities (favelas) and are usually created to promote literacy among children. Here are links to some of these libraries (obviously the richest, since they have websites) but there are many more that exist. In Cordoba province, there are at least 200.

Today I visited the biology library and the economic sciences library. Again, both of these libraries had closed stacks (books and periodicals). The biology library consisted of a room with tables and a counter with one computer access to the catalogue and a place to ask for the books you need. There was another room where you could access the periodicals collection. There was perhaps 70 current journals that were out on the shelves. The retrospective collection and donated journals were in closed stacks. No browsing allowed. In the periodicals room, there were 2 computers with internet access, but you needed permission to use the computers. There doesn’t seem to be access to electronic journals. Internet use is simply for doing research on the internet.

The biology library has just created their webpage, but I don’t think it’s online yet. I may have a chance to look at in the coming days. I had a chance to look at the closed stacks of the book collection of the biology library. Half of the collection consisted of rare books and pre 1950’s books. I was told that these books were used, but that they intended to convert this part of the collection into a museum.

The economic science library had more computers, but again, no one was using them because you need to ask permission to use them, and according to the man at the desk, they are very slow and not very reliable. This library had both the DOS catalogue and the Windows version of the catalogue that was a little more user friendly. However, the card catalogue was also still in use. Apparently, this library has a website, but it seems to be down at the moment, so I cannot access it.

I hope to have a closer look at some of the libraries in the coming days or weeks… and when my spanish improves, I hope to be able to give explanations that are more than just what I am seeing as I walk through the libraries.