Search

Memoirs of the family library of Alejandro E. Parada

In this editorial, on the occasion of the one-hundred anniversary of the creation of the Librarianship and Information Science Career at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, we reflect on various aspects of the teaching of the profession and its relationship with research. Some of the topics analyzed are the following: the need to abandon traditional Library Science, the incorporation of subjects such as mathematics, intensive computer programming and digital expertise into the curriculum, the discussion of the postgraduate academic training in the profession, the inclusion of anthropological and social studies in our careers, among other issues. Finally, we address the articulation of these new challenges with research as an integrating element to redefine the identity and new delimitation of the discipline.

This article, developed within the framework of the FILO: CyT (UBA) programming, attempts to generate discussion on the theoretical-methodological foundation of its own object of study. In researching Between what was edited and what was read in the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, a number of topics are addressed to reflect on the History of Publishing, the History of Graphic Design and the History of Reading in the same faculty during the period 1896-2019. In this context, the following topics are developed for future discussion, articulated by the History of Written Culture: the construction of an indispensable theory to carry out the project, the variety and diversity of the existing documentary sources in the faculty, and the methodology appropriate for this problem, among other aspects. Finally, it is pointed out the need to search for a conceptual configuration in order to compare it, discuss it and adapt it to other universities in Argentina interested in these cultural studies, highlighting the importance of establishing similar conceptual models to analyze the History of Publishing, Graphic Design and Reading in the university sphere, in academic settings.

The following editorial analyzes some aspects that have been little addressed about the "accepted forms" by scientific journals in the production of texts. The present article, circumscribed to the subjectivity of personal opinion, is not intended to question the discursive morphologies of academic articles, neither the practices nor the uses of publishing researches. On the contrary, based on the consolidation of these "formalities", the need arises not to adhere exclusively to those expressions of discourse with the aim proposed to recreate academic writing from other angles that have not been considered so far. Therefore, it is suggested the possibility of appealing to other rhetorical and discursive forms not so strongly structured in their wording, which can provide novel approaches to the objects of study of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

On Friday, September 6, at the facilities of the Institute of Library Research (INIBI), the book of collective authorship "A controversy with history. The Juarroz-Sabor debate on Library and Documentation" was presented. The work constitutes a special edition to mark 50 years of INIBI. The words of the Academic Secretary of the Institute are reproduced.

A History of Reading could be defined as many stories still pending. One of the tasks of the field is to build a history of the academic edition and a history of the books stored in the libraries of universities. But how is that story built? What are the knowledge dissemination strategies of the researchers of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (Universidad de Buenos Aires)? What do the libraries of the Institutes keep in their memory? How can we reconstruct the testimony of a (possible) reading in the university using the memory of those Institutions? How can the contents of university libraries be used to understand the culture of publishing and reading? What do the new theoretical perspectives on the explanation of reading contribute to these questions? In this context, the present project, Editar y leer en la Universidad. Una historia de la edición académica de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (UBA) desde la Historia de la Lectura, aims to look for new keys of interpretation to these questions, acknowledging that this is a valuable opportunity to start the path of rethinking concepts and categories, based on the new trends in Reading History.

In this editorial, on the occasion of the twenty years of Información, Cultura y Sociedad, the problems and the new challenges of the edition of academic journals are analyzed. It also reflects on a series of aspects related to commercial publishing processes and open access. Finally, some preliminary proposals on this subject are addressed.

This editorial analyses several aspects of the History of Libraries in the area of Librarianship and Information Science, as well as in the Social Sciences. It is noted the importance of this field in the library training. A series of topics are suggested to approach this analysis from the Cultural History perspective and its encounter with the Political History. Finally, some fundamental concepts for the History of Libraries are approached, such as the processes of “continuity and discontinuity”, the “migrations and library articulations”, the “typologies of libraries” in the past, the “changes and traditions”, among others.

Multiplicity and ambivalence: New joints in Librarianship and Information Science. The present work reproduces the inaugural conference of the 48º Reunión Nacional de Bibliotecarios “Bibliotecarios: integración, identidad regional y abordaje transversal” organized by the Asociación de Bibliotecarios Graduados de la República Argentina (ABGRA) in April 2016. It introduces several issues of prime importance for Librarianship and Information Science. The following matters, among others, are taken into account: Multiplicity of approaches to the discipline within an ambivalent framework; new problems of interpretation as a result of the “technological spatialities”; the topic focused on the nomination, professional identity and training; reflection on epistemological, ethical and axiological aspects of the librarian theory and praxis; and the sometimes hidden topic of socio-political entanglements in the realities of our field. Finally, on the basis of the previous issues and within the frame of our postmodern societies, a series of conceptualizations and thoughts are preliminarily outlined.

Writing and Librarianship and Information Science. The following editorial includes a series of thoughts regarding some of the elements related to writing and Librarianship and Information Science. The theoretical and practical context of the text production is specially analyzed as an instance of the librarian research. Among the different points of this matter, the following are mentioned: Librarian identity from the perspective of the different areas in the Social Sciences conceived as the otherness, the importance of transcending the methods and subjects of study that characterize the field, the creative power of the representation of the writing as a construction of an own librarian story, the urgency to develop innovative discourses that contribute to a new network between Librarianship and Information Science and other sciences,etcetera. The conclusion of the editorial is that our discipline should conceive the challenge of reviewing the traditional themes and the likelihood criteria from other perspectives still not addressed.

In this Editorial, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of creation of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at the Universidad de Buenos Aires [Filo: 120], the contributions of Library and Information Science (LIS) are analyzed to disciplinary field of Human Sciences. The LIS, precisely because of its rich duality between the Humanities and Social Sciences, is set as an area in a “state of openness” to these fields. Among the various points of confluence or cultural articulations that this discipline can provide, the following are mentioned: the breadth of its concept of “shared territoriality”; its ability to foster “creative marginality”; its intentionality manifested by the multidisciplinary practice; its professional practice of bibliographic and regulatory nature; its discursive coherence to avoid fragmentation and fragmentation of the objects of study; its close link with the academic and popular knowledge; among many others. The Editorial ends with a reflection on the ability of the LIS to link both transversely and diagonally, the whole of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

In this editorial, space changes in libraries are discussed. One of the most important issues facing these institutions is precisely the radical transformation of the traditional librarian spatiality. After defining and contextualizing the subject, it is proposed to make a brief typology of that spatiality. Thus, the following current dimensions are identified: Material, immaterial, biological, domain expansion, and the poli or multifunctional spatiality. The editorial concludes with a call for reflection on the future of libraries in front of the emergence of its spatial mutation.

This work was presented as a document for debate and reflection in the 1º Jornadas Nacionales de Docentes e Investigadores Universitarios en Ciencia de la Información (DUCI) held on 3rd and 4th September 2015 at the Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno. The text indicates, in preliminary and provisional way, some of the most important perspectives of Library and Information Science. In this context, the following perspectives are mentioned: The crisis of the identity denomination, the role of leadership of the profession in the Web 2.0, the topic of co-management between librarians and users, the potential of self-representation and deliberation in libraries, the technological dimensions, the construction of the professional language, the importance of domain analysis in the semantic web and its relationship with language, the trend towards inclusion, the gestation of open access portals, the paradigm of polymorphic diversity, the theoretical and philosophical dimension, among many others. Finally, it is stressed the importance of the Library and Information Science as a discipline of virtual plurality and diversity and as an open field for citizens to transform information into knowledge.

Beyond the “Information Science”. Trends of a discipline in perpetual motion. In this editorial the various trends in Information Science at a time marked by the whole, the Digital Age and postmodernism are analyzed. Among other aspects, the following topics are discussed: The impact of “liquid modernity” in the processing of information, development of library systems indeterminists, areas of “virtual plurality” in the traditional spaces of the Libraries, the increasing instrumentation of the Open Access, the importance of librarians’ training in the specialized “domain areas” and interoperability of the Semantic Web, the professional profile in digital capabilities, the role of “cultural heritage” of libraries, archives and museums, the otherness of users in their new virtual life, the modern architecture of the “Web of Things” and their relationships with people, among other topics of vital significance to resolve new perspectives of Information Science.

In this editorial the complex relationships that reconfigure the encounter of postmodernism with Librarianship / Information Science are analyzed. Among several aspects, the effects and influences that the libraries and librarians have experienced before the cultural articulations of the "postmodern" are discussed.

In this editorial the various relationships, both theoretical and technological, impacting on modern Information Science are analyzed. Among many topics, the current name of "Librarianship", the role of libraries in the context of "new forms of sociability", the reconfiguration of the libraries typologies; the current forms of collaboration and partnerships; user participation in the processes of library management are addressed, among other things that transform the concepts of the discipline in a dynamics of "mobile articulations and paradigms".

In this Editorial some of the global outlooks of Library and Information Science are discussed. After contextualizing the discipline within the cultural changes that have occurred in the Social Sciences before the advent of the virtual world, the author points out the characteristics of these emerging paradigms: The constant migration of media, the links between Library and Museum Studies, the articulation between the artificial and the natural language, the deterritorialization of the information and its users, the challenge of building a librarian profession with its own identity framed in global and transnational processes of information, among other perspectives.

This editorial discusses the topic of the articles published in this volume, and compares them to the mainstream LIS journals. This procedure leads the author to the following conclusions: The issues and share concerns coincide with current Anglo-American LIS subjects, and also evident local characteristics. Thus, globalization and local visions live and feed in a dynamic exchange.

This project aims at studying various aspects of print culture present in the realm of books and reading in Argentina since the May Revolution until the mid twentieth century, especially from the point of view of the New History of Culture and its relationship with Library Science and Publishing. Documents that characteristically belong to the fields of Institutional History and Microhistory will be analyzed. These include: edicts and announcements, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, typographic fonts and impositions, the bibliographic materials that influenced the political thought of the time, printers’ records and their relationship with the world of publishing as found in publishers’ archives, among other “lesser printed matter” that Political History has ignored so far. A series of disciplines and their convergence are involved: literary studies, gender studies, library science studies, historic studies, and political science studies. The analysis and intercrossing of these domains, typical of the Humanities and the Social Sciences, will frame the object of study within a wider discipline: the History of Publishing and Reading in Argentina since 1810 until 1950. The methodology of apprehending the diverse cultural records, without leaving aside quantitative approaches, will allow a qualitative study of these facts, and, in some occasions, the application of the so-called “trace method”, in the reconstruction of textual representations and practices. In the same way, this research will focus on citizens’ participation, especially in the public and institutional spheres in urban settings, where the polysemantic structure of print culture is manifested more intensely. Within this context, the project aims at giving wider visibility to the extraordinary richness of print culture of the period being studied, and, on the other hand, at linking the world of publishing with the world of reading and its main actors: readers and their abilities to apprehend print discourse.

The current article constitutes a summary of the papers presented in Conference “Towards a History of the Printed Culture in Argentina (1810-1950)”, on the 22nd August, 2012 at the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas (INIBI) of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras of the Universidad de Buenos Aires as part of the UBACYT Project titled “History of Publishing and of Reading in public and institutional places. The participation of the people in the field of the Printed Culture in Argentina” (Código 20020100200004 [01/K004] - Proyectos trienales de Programación científica 2011-2014).

The author asks why we need the History of Books and Libraries (HBL) in education for Librarianship. To answer this question develops 6 answers. 1) Because the HBL provides a general education essential to develop the librarian curriculum, when it identifies the dynamic and dialectic linking between past, present and future of modern Librarianship. 2) Because the HBL is a practical and operational knowledge to analyze and identify ways to solve problems of the librarians of the past. 3) Because the HBL allows a systematic and rational set of textual productions generated in many different historical periods. 4) Because the HBL shows that the past account of libraries is not only a locus of power but a space where ideas are expressed economic conditions in society. 5) Because the HBL points to the need to think about their enriching encounter with the History of Reading, and 6) because the HBL is the indispensable basis to support a Philosophy of Library & Information Science.

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.