Library (institution)

D2

a

School Libraries

Central America maintains very few school libraries, although the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sponsored a pilot project in the 1960s to establish school libraries in Honduras. The project had laid some foundations for school library service by the late 1970s when it was suspended due to political instability in the region. UNESCO revived the program in the late 1980s after most political unrest had subsided.

D2

b

National Libraries

The relatively poor governments of Central American countries have had difficulty maintaining national libraries amidst political unrest and various environmental disasters. For example, an earthquake in 1972 severely damaged the Rubén Darío National Library building in Managua, Nicaragua. However, with help from the Swedish International Development Agency, the library was able to relocate, increase its holdings, install modern library automation, compile a national bibliography, and expand public library service in the interior of Nicaragua. El Salvador’s national library suffered damage from an earthquake in 1986, and reconstruction has been hampered by a lack of resources. In addition to maintaining a national library, El Salvador is home to an independent private institution, the Gallardo Library, whose collections include some manuscripts from the colonial era.

D2

c

University Libraries

University libraries in Central America generally offer better and more comprehensive services than do national libraries in the region. In Guatemala, the country’s five universities work together to improve library access, issue a directory, and compile a union list of periodicals. The Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City provides modern services such as an online catalog and access to the MEDLINE database of medical journal information, published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Most university libraries in El Salvador have inadequate quarters, very small collections, and little service beyond circulation of reserve books. The government closed the national University of El Salvador during much of the civil war, so most university library development occurred in the country’s private institutions. El Salvador’s oldest private university, the Central American University of José Simeón Cañas (founded in 1965), features the country’s largest collection of materials. After the end of the civil war, the national university began a strategic plan for library development, partially funded by the government of Spain.

---

---

The National Autonomous University of Honduras in Tegucigalpa has a central library with adequate quarters, including a state-of-the-art audiovisual center. The university also maintains branch libraries at its medical school and at its campus in San Pedro Sula.

D

3

Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela

The countries in the Andes mountain region of South America are Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Each of these countries maintains a national library. The largest collections are those of the national libraries of Peru and Venezuela, each of which has more than 1 million volumes. In 1943 a fire destroyed most of Peru’s national library, including its irreplaceable historical manuscripts. With international assistance, however, Peru not only rebuilt the library building but also modernized the library’s equipment and operating procedures. The national library of Colombia, in Bogotá, dates from 1777. The building’s facilities are largely out of date. Ecuador maintains a modern national library in the capital city of Quito. Bolivia also offers modern library services in Sucre. Venezuela’s national library became an independent agency in the 1970s, and later it increased its collections, created an automated bibliography and catalog system, and began a conservation program. The library also administers a national system of public libraries.

One of Latin America’s most important libraries is the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá, Colombia. Now a public library, the Arango Library began as an outgrowth of the modest special library of economics materials collected by Colombia’s central bank. It became a general independent library in 1958 and moved into a new building with 11 reading rooms in 1990. Another important library is the Pilot Public Library for Latin America, established in 1954 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Medellín, Colombia. This library has achieved enormous success in providing public access to information for the people of Medellín. Public library service in other parts of Colombia is not as strong, although both the Colombian Institute of Culture (COLCULTURA) and the Arango Library provide subsidies of various types to libraries in smaller cities.

Ministries of education in Andean countries lack budgets adequate to devote much attention to library development in elementary schools. However, secondary schools—especially private secondary schools—often have modest libraries that support the academic curriculum. In Bolivia, the Book Bank, established in 1970, provides library service to students and the general public throughout the country. Operating from headquarters in La Paz, it maintains more than 100 branches, each having about 1,000 volumes.

Despite having poor collections early in the 20th century, university libraries in the Andean countries began to improve markedly in the 1970s. For example, Colombia constructed central libraries on new university campuses. In many cases, funds for these libraries were provided by the Inter-American Development Bank, an independent intergovernmental body. Colombian universities also received technical assistance to modernize their libraries from a federal agency known as the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Higher Education. In addition, university libraries hired new staff members from among recent graduates of the country’s Inter-American Library School. Academic libraries followed similar patterns of development elsewhere in the Andean region.

Most special libraries in Andean countries serve government ministries and private research institutes. Although the region’s national scientific research councils are active and well funded, they generally devote their resources to gaining access to international databases rather than to developing their own collections of specialized journals and other materials.

D

4

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay

The southernmost Latin American countries are Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Except for Paraguayans, the people in those countries have a stronger tradition of buying books and forming private libraries than do citizens in the rest of Latin America. Over the years many of these private collections have been incorporated into national, public, and academic libraries in the region.

The responsibilities of the national libraries in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay differ from many of those in the rest of the world because they do not directly serve each country’s parliament. Instead, each of these countries maintains a separate parliamentary library with collections designed to serve government legislators. The Chilean national library in Santiago contains approximately 3.5 million volumes. It also administers the country’s fledgling public library system. In addition, the national library maintains a special room housing the 40,000-volume collection of Latin America’s most influential bibliographer, Chilean librarian José Toribio Medina, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Argentina’s national library, established in Buenos Aires in 1810, is in the process of reorganizing its large collection. Paraguay also maintains a small national library.

The University of Buenos Aires maintains one of the largest collections of library materials in southern Latin America. The university’s collection is distributed throughout the city in a number of separate faculty and research institute libraries. In 1941 a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation helped establish a coordinating office for the various units of the university library system. Argentina also maintains a strong collection at its oldest university, the National University of Córdoba (founded in 1613). As late as 1956 Argentina had only 7 institutions of higher education, all funded by the central government. Since then, however, new universities have multiplied rapidly, bringing the total to more than 50. Most of the new universities have small library holdings, but some have initiated aggressive acquisitions programs.

Chile’s national university, the University of Chile (founded in 1738), maintains that country’s largest and most comprehensive library collection. Like the University of Buenos Aires, it has several campuses and administers a decentralized library system. Other notable university libraries in Chile include those at the Catholic University of Valparaíso and at the Federico Santa María Technical University, also in Valparaíso.