Historia de la edición y de la lectura desde los espacios públicos e institucionales. La participación de la ciudadanía en el ámbito de la cultura impresa en la Argentina. Proyecto de investigación UBACYT 20020100200004 (01/K004)

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

Espacialidad y bibliotecas. Reflexiones sobre una breve tipología del espacio bibliotecario

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

Tipología de las bibliotecas argentinas desde el período hispánico hasta 1830. Una primera clasificación provisional

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