Crisis en la Argentina: una respuesta desde la historia de las bibliotecas públicas

Abstract

The author defines and epitomizes the concept of crisis and associates the duration with the likely outcome. States that in 2002 Argentina is in crisis and offers a look at the problem from the Library Science with the question: what tells us the history of public libraries in Argentina during their continuous and endless crisis? To outline some answers presents four Argentine library events occurred in the late colonial period (1794), in the May Revolution (1810-1812), in 1870 with the enactment of the Law on Protection of public libraries (Act 419) and in the 1930s with the emergence of libraries in neighborhood clubs and community societies. An approximation to the meanings of these events reflect on the following areas: public participation in the library structures, the library as a promoter of social mobility and as a center of community power, the need to understand these cultural entities in an area of historical continuity, and the inclusion of the political dimension in the analysis and development of this institution.