Libraries in Mexico

Efforts to create the National Library of Mexico (http://biblional.bibliog.unam.mx/bibn/) began in 1833, and it was finally formally established in 1867 through a decree issued by Benito Juarez following the overthrow of Emperor Maximilian. The Library has holdings of over 1,250,000 books and documents, and is a legal deposit library, "which provides for the obligation of editors and producers of bibliographic and documentary material, to deliver copies of their works to the National Library and the Library of Congress." (http://biblional.bibliog.unam.mx:8080/lenya/ibh/live/deposito-legal.html). (based on Spanish to English translation of the site using FoxLingo (http://www.foxlingo.com/).

The pathfinder at this location was created by Library of Congress subject specialists, and provides links to information about libraries, archives, digital collections and related organizations in Mexico, with links and brief descriptions:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/mexico/resources/mexico-libraries.html

Cunningham, N. (1997) Texas Library Journal. 73(3) Fall 1997. “Global Reach: An interview with Mexican Library Association President Elsa Ramírez Leyva “. Retrieved from http://www.txla.org/pubs/tlj-3q97/article1.html on February 20, 2010.

This article is over ten years old, so I'm interested to follow up and see if and how the situation may have changed. I suspect, based on reading Gastelum's article below, that many of Leyva's points are still valid.

Excerpt: “‘In Mexico, public libraries are not very well supported by the government. We have had libraries from the 16th century, but even so, people are not used to looking to the library as a possible source of information.’
‘Public libraries only started in the last century as small libraries, called gabinetas de lectura, or reading rooms, but most of the collections were in English and French so they were only for the well-educated. In the 1920s, after the revolution, there was a group of intellectuals who worked for many things, including the public library. These were people who had been to the United States and had experienced public libraries. José Vasconcelos, Mexican philosopher and one-time Minister of Education, was one of these intellectuals who supported the idea of public libraries in Mexico.’
One of the problems, according to Ms. Ramírez, is that Mexican public libraries have not experienced a consistent level of support over the years. We know that this is also a challenge for Texas public libraries.
It wasn’t until 1983, under President Miguel de la Madrid, that Mexico began to develop a strong public library support program. Ms. Ramírez noted that ‘through this project they opened almost 3,000 public libraries across the country. Currently Mexico has 5,000 public libraries.’”

Meraz, G. (1998) Texas Library Journal. 74(4) Winter 1998. “Bookmarks, the Lawrence Brothers, and the Cuban Connection: TLA IN MEXICO.“ Retrieved from http://www.txla.org/pubs/tlj74_4/meraz.html on February 20, 2010.

Another slightly dated article about the struggle public libraries face in building their collections, and the impact that lack of reading material may have on the public those libraries are intended to serve.

Excerpt: “The prohibitive expense of books in general coupled with a struggling public library system make finding reading material a significant problem...For many, books are luxury items. Compounding the problem, public libraries in Mexico have virtually no money for collection development. Most consist of small collections in such poor condition that the materials are almost unusable. Of the roughly 6,000 libraries in Mexico, only a few hundred function, even in the most basic of terms, as proper libraries, confided a former member of the ministry of education. While universities and a few premier state-sponsored libraries do offer high caliber services and materials, the public remains generally isolated from that world of books. As the Argentinean reporter concluded, "without books to read, engendering a culture of reading becomes near impossible."

Gastelum, S. (2006) Criticas. Inside Mexican Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.criticasmagazine.com/article/CA6344733.html on February 17, 2010.

Criticas is a provider of Spanish-language book reviews, so I was interested to see an editorial here that offered a perspective on the current state of public libraries in Mexico. According to Gastelum, there are 7100 public libraries in Mexico, all of which are part of a network administered from Mexico City, called Red Nacional de Bibliotecas Públicas (RNBP). All funding for the libraries for everything except staff salaries comes from the government, with salaries paid by the local governments. A recent effort to create a “megalibrary” in Mexico City has been very controversial, not only because it has cost $100 million, but because critics claim that it centralizes control over public libraries even further.

“(Critics) have told the media that it is difficult to acknowledge the Vasconcelos library as an “electronic brain” for all libraries when most of them are literally falling apart. In 2000, only two out of every ten branches had web access. Today, only 30 percent of libraries have computers or Internet access. Ironically, on opening day, the megalibrary’s few computers had no keyboards and not all were wired to the Internet. So far, there is no strategic plan for how the new library in Mexico City will serve the branches.”