La biblioteca pública en Medellín: un acercamiento a su contexto legal

Abstract

A review and analysis of primary sources was the primary basis for exploring, from an historical and descriptive perspective, the legal issues that have undergirded the creation, development, and functioning of the public library. This study is part of the research project “History and Development of the Medellín Public Library in the Twentieth Century.” This article provides an account of the legal context of the public library, exploring in a general way legislation at the national level, and in a more specific way, at the local level: Medellín. The first legal actions regarding public libraries in Colombia date back to 1777 with the creation of the Royal Public Library of Santafé. In Medellín, legal dispositions related to the public library began in the late nineteenth century, as part of a campaign for the promotion of public education, an idea that came into reality with the sanction of the Decreto Orgánico de la Instrucción Pública of 1870, which in turn promulgated the creation of public libraries in all the sovereign states that constituted the nation of Colombia. On the basis of this decree, the Public Library of the State of Antioquia was established in the city of Medellín. Beginning in the twentieth century, the public library developed within the setting of educational policy and ended the century in the framework of cultural policies