Bibliotecas públicas em tempos difíceis

The study of everyday-life during World War II showed how attendance and valuation of public libraries may considerably increase during “Hard Times”. Some of the reasons are expected – free reading – and some other are occasionally surprising – shelter under adverse atmospheric conditions, appreciated levels of comfort such as lighting, desired (and recently-lost?) social interaction. It should be noted that, in some European and North-American countries, there were neighbourhood libraries located throughout the big city, acting as estimated proximity services. Being aware of this reality helps us understand why cultural and recreational services, and nowadays Web services too, are not less, but even more important in times of crisis. In Portugal, and in the last decade, public libraries have been steadily degraded through the reduction of adequately qualified personnel and through a generalised lack of the updating of collections, along with other cuts. Certain technological options do not appear to have been made according to the needs of readers but following non-transparent investment choices away of public scrutiny. If Wi-Fi is quite widespread now, ebooks have not entered public libraries yet. However, we may question: What shelters do we want in our city to read in, and how do we want to read? “Secludedly” alone, in a community without propinquity? Do we tolerate intrusions while reading in public? Who pushes those technological choices? And above all: if we are deprived of these spaces or of these services, who will fill this void? Will they still be "built for us"?O estudo de quotidianos da 2ª Grande Guerra mostrou como a afluência e valorização das bibliotecas públicas podem aumentar consideravelmente em Tempos Difíceis. Por razões expectáveis – leitura gratuita – e por outras talvez mais surpreendentes – abrigo em condições atmosféricas adversas, iluminação, níveis de conforto apreciados, interação social desejada (e recém-perdida?). Note-se que, em alguns países da Europa e no Norte da América, havia bibliotecas de bairro distribuídas pela cidade grande, atuando como estimados serviços de proximidade. Conhecer essa realidade ajuda a compreender porque serviços culturais, de recreação (e hoje em dia também serviços Web) são, não menos, mas ainda mais importantes em tempos de crise. Em Portugal, na última década, as bibliotecas públicas têm sido paulatinamente degradadas pela redução no pessoal com qualificação adequada e por uma generalizante falta de atualização das coleções, a par doutros cortes. Certas opções tecnológicas não parecem ter sido feitas de acordo com necessidades de leitores mas por opções de investimento não transparentes para o público. Se o Wi-Fi está bastante generalizado, os ebooks não chegaram ainda às bibliotecas públicas. Entretanto podemos questionar: Que abrigos queremos na cidade e como queremos ler? Esconsamente sós, em comunidade sem propinquidade? Toleramos intrusões na leitura pública? Quem empurra estas opções tecnológicas? E acima de tudo: se ficarmos sem estes espaços ou serviços, quem irá preencher o vazio? Serão ainda “construídos para nós”

[Review of] Library of Congress. The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures

Review of the book "The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures" published by the Library of Congres

The Sámi Library, North of the North: colonialism, resistance and reading in a public library

The Sámi in Sweden are welcomed as readers of the main language, dissatisfied by the relegated status of their culture as an ethnic minority. The Sámi Library in Jokkmokk is a library for the Sámi culture and the Sápmi. While Sámi culture is resisting and transfiguring itself, neoliberal arrangements, the privatisation of public services, new language laws and the Libraries Bill have put additional challenges to the library. The case study of this library is used to discuss what an indigenous library is. The acknowledgement of the colonial past and the demand for respectful recognition are advanced as fundamental requirements for a democratic use of the documentary resources and a realisation of cultural rights

“Holding the Dream”: Women’s Favorite Reading Matter in a Portuguese Prison

The reading practices of women, mediated by a prison library in Portugal, constituted an interesting case study. In Santa Cruz do Bispo prison, female prisoners were increasingly aged and excluded from social groups, less literate, and educated. Many were first-time library users and some were beginning readers. This research aimed to understand their reading practices and preferences, their self-assigned meanings, and the roles of reading in prison. Having become aware that industrial literature romance novels were the most requested items, a critical comparative analysis of the three most requested titles was contrasted with readers’ favorite passages to foster a deeper understanding of their preferences and sustain an integrated analysis. Furthermore, a consensualized definition of a “good read” is presented. The results from ethnography and interviews to readers and staff are analyzed taking into account class, gender, ethnicity, age, occupation, and education of the detainees. Conclusions address the fact that although the prison’s educational service and imprisonment conditions propitiated an increase in reading generally, the library was oriented by educational targets and irresponsive to certain demands expressed by readers. Secondly, women readers were using the available top-selling romance novels to sustain their introspective and prospective work, while reckoning with their past and planning for their future. In addition to this reflexive stance, escapist entertainment and knowledge building were important reading purposes

[Review of ]Downey, Anthony (org.). Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Competing Narratives in the Middle East

Review of the book Dissonant Archives, org. by Anthony Downe

Library of Congress (2017), The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures

Ao primeiro olhar se vê um livro com dupla leitura: a do objeto gráfico, cativantemente desenhado e ilustrado; a da história da catalogação na Biblioteca do Congresso (BC), Estados Unidos da América (EUA), das fichas ao mobiliário que encerrava ordenadamente, até ao catálogo digital. As inúmeras imagens de rostos e capas de livros e das suas autoras e autores, das fichas com anotações manuais sobre cada título, proporcionam apreço e reconhecimento de autorias e adicionam gozo visual e materia..

Cosas de mujeres: lectura y penitenciaría

The patriarchal oppression reserved a social, symbolic place for women, framed by segregation, devaluation of their work and social role. At the same time, this oppression developed surveillance and moral punishment practices aimed at the biological reproduction and to the reproduction of the conditions of everyday life. Social reproduction, is taught as a "women's thing." From the modern era of the Western world, detention houses and hospices or hospitals were created to “save” women from economic, mental or sexual conditions considered dangerous by local authorities or by the “heads” of their own family. The perplexity expressed by Mary Bosworth (2000) remains relevant: after decades, centuries, and with variations of national, criminal, political, and epochal scope, these prisons were shaped by norms of moralization built around "femininity", with surprising features of the historical permanence of inequality. Strong socio-cultural markers to retain: the readers of the researched library were, to a large extent, women from popular classes, which is not frequent in Portuguese public libraries. As I could observe, very few of the women I interacted with had ever entered a library. Racialized women, mainly the romani and black, were quantitatively represented in numbers far higher than those estimated for these groups in Portugal at large

A atribulada criação da Biblioteca Pública de Braga e o seu arrojado bibliotecário limiano

The creation of the Public Library of Braga, one of the first of the modern times in Portugal, and a brief sociobiography of Manoel Rodrigues da Silva Abreu, the first librarian, are here presented within the context of the social, economic, cultural and political power relations of the initial decades of the Library’s history. Some episodes of the creation and of the consolidation of the Library, as well as some episodes of the librarian’s professional life will be outlined to facilitate a wider reading. While building from specificity, the analysis and interpretation of this case enclose an explanatory capacity addressed at a wider framework, in what concerns both the history of public libraries in Braga, and the understanding of the cultural history of this period in Braga and in Portugal

Lectura, género, penitenciaría: apuntes sobre metodología de una investigación cualitativa

The purpose of this text is both to share doubts and comments, and to bring to the debate some solutions that I recreated or developed during my investigation in a women's prison. This project was conducted through field work in the Special Prison Establishment of Santa Cruz do Bispo, for four months in 2012. The editors of this book proposed me to write a text that would be oriented to researchers and professionals who have to deal with the published literature and with their research design. I will do it from the interdisciplinary crossing of some areas: reading, prison libraries, sociology of culture and prison life. My recent participation in a seminar at the Faculty of Documentation and Communication Sciences, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, and the debate between colleagues that took place there, created the right moment for me to resume this topic. To avoid redundancy in relation to what I have written, I will point to my published works where some of the problems I will raise have already been addressed in detail. At the same time, I will refer to some literature that I consider to be a good basis for an in-depth study of more controversial or less widespread topics

A atribulada criação da Biblioteca Pública de Braga e o seu arrojado bibliotecário limiano

The creation of the Public Library of Braga, one of the first of the modern times in Portugal, and a brief sociobiography of Manoel Rodrigues da Silva Abreu, the first librarian, are here presented within the context of the social, economic, cultural and political power relations of the initial decades of the Library’s history. Some episodes of the creation and of the consolidation of the Library, as well as some episodes of the librarian’s professional life will be outlined to facilitate a wider reading. While building from specificity, the analysis and interpretation of this case enclose an explanatory capacity addressed at a wider framework, in what concerns both the history of public libraries in Braga, and the understanding of the cultural history of this period in Braga and in Portugal