Search

A brief report on the activities developed during the recent meeting of librarians in Paipa is described: CERLALC Meeting: The contribution of the public libraries to the development of the countries. Towards a research agenda. The concurrence of intentions signed when the meeting concluded is included.

The author reflects, prospectively, to some of the characteristics of "new episteme" that reconfigures the Library & Information Science, from the introduction of the computer world in the discipline. Among the topics included, he claims creative and provoking disorder in libraries, with the help of some digital devices. Also meditates about new ways to interact with users through virtual reality. Finally, it emphasizes the unavoidable impact of the human factor between reader and librarian, and calls for direct contact between people.

In this article a re-reading of the present convergence of several fields of study: The New History of Culture; the History of Book and the Libraries; the Bibliography; the History of Reading, among other areas related to the universe of printed culture. Reflections derived from that phenomenon are articulated from a particular discipline: Library and Information Science. The work is developed in two different parts that are strongly related: The «Meeting between the History of Book and the History of Reading», and a set of «Reflections on the New History of Book and of the Libraries»

Información, cultura y sociedad is ten years old and the author reflects on the processes that have positioned it as a scientific journal specialized in Library & Information Science. This position has been reinforced by the application of strict academic controls, exercised both by the editors of the journal and by the Editorial Board of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Both instances enable a successful cross between the inside and outside the discipline. He also considered the ultimate goals of a publication of its kind in Argentina and the existential dimension that writing gives to research and professional practice. Finally, the author spreads on the search for a Library Science national identity and on the importance of the debate of ideas.

This work shows a brief report about the academic activities that were carried out at the International Congress «Texts, authors and libraries», in Córdoba city on 24-26 September, 2008, on the occasion of the 190 years of the opening of the Biblioteca Mayor of Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.

The author makes explicit a number of concepts that will be unavoidable reflection from a librarianship prospective: to bring new life to libraries as yes-places where the face to face communication were developed; increasing the social dimension and the political participation of librarians; the adequacy of our discipline to capture the migration from print to virtual representations; the search for balance between unity and diversity in the construction of knowledge and epistemology of librarianship; the validity of micro-library & information studies to know the daily nature of librarians and present or remote readers; the personal commitment to include the excluded people developing interpretative skills generated by reading and writing.

The article briefly studies the library management practices in the Public Library of Buenos Aires from 1810 to 1818. It is based on a document from the General Archive of the Nation: the “Libro de cargo y data, o de cuenta corriente de los encargados de los gastos de la Biblioteca Pública formado por el Director de ella Dr. Dn. Luis José Chorroarín en el año 1812”. Thanks to that source it is possible to track the administration and the different processes that allowed to manage that important place, one of the first creations of cultural politics of the Revolution of May. Thus, several subjects of particular interest are seen here: incomes and expenditures; personnel; selling of duplicate or damaged material; bookbinding; book acquisition; building maintenance; etc. Among several conclusions, the relevance of this type of administrative and bureaucratic document is mentioned in order to know the variety of library practices within the framework of the Library Science History in Argentina

The author think about the public and their needs for library services from the focus of the world of representations of virtual and print culture, as this approach allows to link two universes in constant interaction: users and librarians like as a reality defined, increasingly, by the virtual / digital. Given this reality that involves a diachronic and remote relationship, but that does not ignore the culture or the printed manuscript, librarians must learn to redesign content, share new forms of normalization, discover innovative mechanisms providing service recipient training, and daring to use qualitative methods to research and unravel the behavior of "virtual reader" daring to use qualitative methods to investigate and unravel the behavior of "virtual readers" designed as models ever changing.

This article tries to outline a brief classification of the different types of existing libraries in the present Argentine territory since the Hispanic domination to 1830. The typology adopted is, above all, a provisional approach greatly rectifiable. The contribution is aimed, in general terms, to whom start the study of the history of the books, libraries, and reading in Argentina. In that sense, the quoted bibliography tries to substitute the lack of study guides on the subject. The identified libraries belong to: institutions or religious corporations; private individuals; foreigners societies (i.e.: belonging to a society); educational institutes; and cathedral public libraries; conventual public libraries; public libraries; circulating libraries (and reading rooms); and libraries made to order or offered by businessmen.

The aim of this work is to give to know one of the older printings edited by a Buenos Aires bookshop at the beginning of the 19th century: “The Catalog of Duportail Hermanos Bookshop” (1829). The booklet is analyzed from different approaches. Firstly, the theoretical frame of this kind of study is analyzed. Afterwards, the bookselling activity of that time, the cultural context, and the development of that bookshop is browsed. Secondly, the following subjects are discussed: the presence of a reading room, the historical evolution of other catalogs of that time, and the statistical analysis of the publications for sale. Then, a qualitative study of the collection is performed, based on the “notes” left by a reader of those days. Finally, a classified catalog is created with 508 bibliographic entries. The article is finished with a number of conclusions. The importance of this printing in the field of the history of reading and its practices is considered.

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.

The main purpose of this project is to study the presence (visibility) of Argentine journals of Social Sciences and Humanities in international databases. Firstly, the subject is approached within the theoretical framework that justifies and guarantees the project. Secondly, taking into account the main existing bibliography on the subject, the searched objectives, the methodology used, the conceptual precision, and the proceedings are browsed. Finally, the first results obtained are shown.

The first look of the author identifies and lists the current Argentine specialized periodicals in in 2000, over the mention of some already ceased. In his analysis ignores the excellence criteria applicable to scientific publishing to take a second look at the reality of librarianship in Argentina, located in a developing country, where libraries are poor and insufficient and without a powerful information system, which is why the emergence of a number of periodical titles brings enthusiasm and optimism in front of a complicated reality. The third view focuses on the ideals Argentine and Latin American librarians, in the library research, and in new directions and paradigms in both existing and those who challenge the status quo. The fourth eye focuses on the virtues of writing about the research done, on what is done in the libraries labor, and what is expected, because no title will remain without the constant contribution of librarians.

This paper critically examines the relations between librarianship and social responsibility. it does so in a number of ways; first the dominance of information technology in library and information science, then examines the discussion between "'pragmatism" versus social responsability: finally the contribution reports the disciplinary growth of our profession as a social scientific discipline In this way, the author argues for the integratíon of this different trends ID librarianship, but without missing our social responsability.

The author suggests the need to redefine the Librarianship taking into account the influence of new technologies. He thinks about both renewed positions and perspectives such as some losses related to the reflection on the experience of professional practice. From these assumptions, the author raises a number of questions: ethical issues, inclusion or not to a particular field or discipline, possibility of founding a Philosophy of Librarianship, challenges of professional education, sociopolitical commitment, relationship with technology, and so on. He concludes on the need to consider these questions to start surround and reflect on our reason for being.

The current text is about the characteristics, either theoretical or instrumental, of the Editorial section of a specialized scientific journal. The object of study is the academic publication Información, Cultura y Sociedad.