Blog Bitácora de un bibliotecario

This compilation includes "Las bibliotecas del sol naciente (01) and (02)," "12 de octubre," "Libertad en las bibliotecas…," "Colonialismo bibliotecológico," and "Turkmenistán."

"Las bibliotecas del sol naciente (01) and (02)" present a detailed overview of the Japanese library system, including public, academic, school, and special libraries, as well as the National Diet Library and its extensive digital services. The entries analyze legislative frameworks, funding models, copyright debates, professional structures, and large-scale initiatives such as web archiving (WARP) and digital cataloguing projects. Beyond statistical description, the texts reflect on creativity, cultural specificity, and the limits of transplanting institutional models across contexts.

"12 de octubre" reframes the commemoration of the so-called "discovery" of the Americas by shifting attention from colonial pasts to contemporary internal discrimination within Latin American societies. The entry situates librarianship within current struggles for linguistic rights, cultural survival, and equitable access to information for Indigenous communities.

"Libertad en las bibliotecas…" reproduces and comments on the Japanese Library Association's Declaration on Intellectual Freedom, examining principles related to acquisition policies, access, privacy, anti-censorship measures, and professional solidarity. The text foregrounds intellectual freedom as a foundational democratic indicator and as an ethical obligation of library institutions.

"Colonialismo bibliotecológico" analyzes political tensions within international library organizations and introduces the concept of "library colonialism" through debates surrounding "American Corners" in foreign institutions. The entry interrogates cultural influence, acquisition policies, and the asymmetries embedded in global information flows.

"Turkmenistán" documents the authoritarian regime of Saparmurat Niyazov and its impact on libraries, publishing, education, censorship, and access to information. Drawing on international reports and media sources, the text critiques disciplinary neutrality and argues that librarianship cannot be divorced from political, ethical, and human rights considerations.

Across these entries, the compilation situates librarianship within global political structures, cultural conflicts, digital transformation, and struggles over intellectual freedom. The volume presents the library not as a neutral repository, but as an institution embedded in systems of power, sovereignty, resistance, and democratic accountability.

This compilation includes the posts "Los gestores de la memoria," "Sobre nuestra educación como bibliotecarios," "Sobre gurúes, santones y otras hierbas…," "Vocación de servicio," "Reflexiones," "Un punto de partida," and "Se otorgarán certificados…" They articulate an early and forceful professional self-definition grounded in memory, ethics, and critical autonomy.

"Los gestores de la memoria" frames librarians as custodians of fragile written civilizations, interrogating professional pride and the erosion of reading and critical literacy. "Sobre nuestra educación como bibliotecarios" critiques technical training models that reduce librarians to functionaries, calling for humanistic formation, research capacity, and ethical responsibility, particularly in marginalized and Indigenous contexts. "Sobre gurúes, santones y otras hierbas…" examines the uncritical adoption of Euro-North American classification systems and imported paradigms, exposing colonial residues in tools such as the UDC and Dewey and advocating locally grounded intellectual production. "Vocación de servicio" reasserts librarianship as a social service oriented toward cultural access rather than commodified "clients." "Reflexiones" invokes the destruction of the Library of Alexandria as an ethical mirror, questioning professional worthiness in relation to historical predecessors. "Un punto de partida" proposes the library as a space where hope is sought and generated, resisting market logics that seek to monetize knowledge. Finally, "Se otorgarán certificados…" critiques the culture of superficial professional credentialism and the commodification of continuing education.

These early entries establish a foundational stance that would later define the author's trajectory: librarianship as memory work, as decolonial vigilance, as pedagogical commitment, and as an ethically charged form of public service. Rather than nostalgic reflection, the text reads as a manifesto-in-formation, articulating tensions between local realities and imported models, between vocation and bureaucracy, and between knowledge as common good and knowledge as commodity.

This compilation gathers the following blog entries published between January and June 2005: "Anarquismo bibliotecario (01)," "Anarquismo bibliotecario (02)," "Anarquismo bibliotecario (y 03)," "Pasantías: ¿trabajo esclavo?," "Vocación de servicio," "Dioses de la bibliotecología," "Estatus de ciencia," "Las 'leyes' de Ranganathan," "Espinas ocultas," "David y Goliath," "Especializaciones," "Explosión de información," "Política y bibliotecas," "Reclamamos…," "Retornando…," "Entre leer y comer…," and "Cuestión de nombres…".

The three-part series "Anarquismo bibliotecario" defines a conceptual and practical framework grounded in the rejection of hierarchical structures in professional, institutional, and informational contexts. It critiques vertical models of management, the concentration of informational power in corporate and geopolitical centers, and advocates for horizontal organization, free access to knowledge, and community-oriented practice.

"Pasantías: ¿trabajo esclavo?" examines internship systems in Argentina, documenting cases of exploitation, lack of training, and institutional negligence, while highlighting the normalization of abusive practices within professional formation. "Vocación de servicio" critiques internal divisions within the profession, particularly between credentialed and non-credentialed practitioners, emphasizing service, experience, and social engagement over formal status.

"Dioses de la bibliotecología" addresses professional hierarchies and elitism, describing the construction of authority based on titles and institutional position, and contrasting it with forms of respect grounded in knowledge and practice. "Estatus de ciencia" questions the classification of librarianship as a science, arguing that its objects of study resist prediction and formalization, and positioning the discipline closer to technique or practice than to scientific law.

"Las 'leyes' de Ranganathan" offers a critical reading of the five laws of library science, contrasting their normative formulation with actual institutional practices, including restricted access, bureaucratic procedures, and structural limitations that hinder user engagement. "Espinas ocultas" examines ideological bias embedded in classification systems, particularly the persistence of colonial and hierarchical terminology in controlled vocabularies.

"David y Goliath" reflects on the role of ideology in shaping knowledge systems and professional practice, arguing that dominant frameworks permeate even technical tools and must be actively resisted at the local level. "Especializaciones" analyzes the concept of specialization, tracing its historical emergence and questioning its association with elitism, technological infrastructure, and institutional prestige.

"Explosión de información" presents an allegorical narrative illustrating the proliferation of redundant knowledge production, academic fragmentation, and the accumulation of informational "noise." "Política y bibliotecas" argues for the inseparability of librarianship and political context, emphasizing the role of information professionals in mediating access to diverse perspectives within socio-political systems.

"Reclamamos…" articulates a collective critique from early-career professionals, addressing deficiencies in education, institutional inertia, and internal barriers within the field. "Retornando…" reflects on the transformative power of information and the responsibility of information professionals in shaping knowledge access and social development.

"Entre leer y comer…" examines the relationship between basic needs and access to knowledge in marginalized communities, arguing for the integration of informational, educational, and material support rather than their opposition. Finally, "Cuestión de nombres…" explores the politics of naming in classification systems, focusing on Indigenous languages and identities, and the ethical implications of terminological choices in knowledge organization.

This compilation gathers entries written in July and August 2005 during participation in the IFLA World Library and Information Congress and its Satellite Conference on Multicultural Library Services in Stockholm and Oslo. The selected texts — "Preparando las alas – IFLA 2005," "Impresiones preliminares…," the daily chronicles from Estocolmo (8–12 de agosto), "Sensaciones sobre Suecia," and the Oslo entries preceding and during WLIC 2005 — document both institutional events and personal field observations.

"Preparando las alas – IFLA 2005" outlines participation in the Satellite Conference on multiculturalism and plurilingualism and anticipates a diary that would critically narrate the experience from within international professional structures. The Stockholm entries record sessions focused on linguistic rights, endangered languages, multilingual catalogues, and staff competencies for multicultural services, including discussions on oral archives and sound collections as tools for language preservation. Visits to the International Library and the Stockholm Public Library provide concrete descriptions of infrastructure, services, and organizational models.

"Sensaciones sobre Suecia" moves beyond conference reporting to analyze Swedish social organization, public policy, ecological practices, migration, and cultural norms, juxtaposing perceived order and underlying tensions. The Oslo entries shift toward the internal mechanics of IFLA governance, describing Standing Committee meetings, bureaucratic procedures, newcomer receptions, and the structural dynamics of large international organizations. Critical attention is paid to the gap between discourse and practical action, the distribution of resources, and the performative dimensions of institutional events.

These texts combine travel chronicle, institutional ethnography, and professional critique. Multicultural librarianship, linguistic diversity, oral memory preservation, organizational bureaucracy, and geopolitical asymmetries are examined through direct observation, situating global professional discourse within concrete social and infrastructural realities.

This compilation includes texts that explore the historical foundations of libraries, the conceptual nature of the book, colonial memory, oral tradition, and the social role of the university. The selected texts — "Una pequeña historia de la biblioteca," "Libridad. O Lo que Hace que un Libro sea un Libro," "Maldición de Malinche," the paired reflections on "12 de octubre" (including the anonymous manuscript of Tlatelolco and excerpts from Taki Ongoy), "Libros vivientes," and "Universidad y trabajo de 'extensión'" — articulate a sustained inquiry into memory, cultural transmission, and responsibility.

"Una pequeña historia de la biblioteca" traces the evolution of documentary repositories from Mesopotamian archives to modern public libraries, examining the entanglement of writing, power, memoricide, colonial destruction, and the persistent tension between cultural preservation and political control. "Libridad" questions materialist definitions of the book, engaging the concept of bookness and proposing an expanded understanding centered on the transmission of human thought across diverse supports, formats, and traditions.

"Maldición de Malinche" reflects on cultural self-denial in Latin America, addressing linguistic displacement and epistemic dependency, while the October 12 entries foreground Indigenous perspectives on conquest through historical testimony and contemporary artistic expression. "Libros vivientes" reframes oral custodians of knowledge as living documentary systems, analyzing their role in preserving endangered languages, sustaining identities, and resisting epistemic erasure. Finally, "Universidad y trabajo de 'extensión'" critiques the notion of academic outreach as an external add-on, arguing instead for a conception of higher education intrinsically bound to social responsibility and transformative action.

Collectively, these texts examine the library not only as an institution, but as a historical and ethical field in which memory, power, language, and cultural survival intersect. Written culture, oral transmission, colonial rupture, and educational practice are situated within a broader reflection on how societies construct, protect, distort, or abandon their own knowledge.

This volume compiles entries written in November and December 2005 during and after a professional visit to Bolivia. The selected texts — "Jallalla Bolivia…," "A los pies del Illimani," and "Volviendo de Bolivia…" — combine travel chronicle, institutional observation, and regional professional analysis.

"Jallalla Bolivia…" narrates the journey across northern Argentina and the Andean highlands into La Paz, situating the experience within the geography of the puna, the Quebrada de Humahuaca, and the Bolivian altiplano. Beyond landscape description, the text emphasizes communal practices, indigenous presence, and the need to move beyond superficial tourism toward deeper intercultural engagement. "A los pies del Illimani" documents the political climate preceding the 2005 presidential elections, while describing the Escuela de Bibliotecología de la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, student organization, curricular structure, and the vitality of municipal and academic library networks, particularly in La Paz and El Alto. "Volviendo de Bolivia…" offers a systematic overview of Bolivian information institutions, including the Biblioteca y Archivo Nacionales in Sucre, the Biblioteca y Archivo Histórico del Congreso Nacional, university library systems, the Banco Central de Bolivia, CIDEM, the Taller de Historia Oral Andina, the Red TIC Bolivia, the CPCIB, CEDIB, and the Revista de Bibliotecología y Ciencias de la Información.

Collectively, these entries portray Bolivia as a dynamic documentary landscape in which academic formation, professional organization, community engagement, and political transformation intersect. Libraries, archives, and documentation centers are examined not as isolated institutions, but as active participants in broader social processes shaped by indigenous resurgence, electoral transition, and regional geopolitical tensions.

This selection from early 2006 entries ("Indiferencia y neutralidad," "Trabajo social…," "Desarrollo de base en bibliotecología," "La cama de Procrustes," "Saber científico y Open Access," among others) consolidates a clear ethical and political position regarding librarianship as a non-neutral, socially embedded practice.

"Indiferencia y neutralidad" establishes the central argument: neutrality is a fiction, and often a disguise for disengagement. The text frames librarianship as inherently political, not through ideological alignment but through everyday decisions that shape access, exclusion, and representation. Professional practice is presented as an ethical obligation tied to the transformative potential of information.

"Trabajo social…" and "Desarrollo de base en bibliotecología" articulate an operational framework for this position. Social engagement is not framed as heroic intervention but as situated responsibility: identifying needs through listening, working collaboratively with communities, and prioritizing locally defined solutions. The concept of desarrollo de base rejects top-down implementation, emphasizing participatory design, qualitative understanding, and community-led evaluation.

Several entries extend this critique toward institutional and international dynamics. "¿'Ayuda' internacional?" questions the asymmetry of knowledge transfer, highlighting the disconnect between imported models and local realities. It criticizes both external arrogance and internal passivity, identifying a structural pattern in which Latin American contexts are treated as experimental grounds rather than as epistemically valid environments.

Historical and political memory also appears as a key dimension. The entry on the 1976 Argentine dictatorship connects librarianship with broader struggles over memory, justice, and responsibility, arguing that commemoration without action is insufficient. Similarly, reflections on Indigenous communities expose ongoing processes of dispossession and marginalization, positioning libraries as potential sites of visibility and support.

The texts on oral tradition ("Tradición oral…" and "Más sobre oralidad…") expand the scope of what counts as knowledge. Oral memory is defended as equal in value to written records, and libraries are redefined as institutions responsible for managing both. This challenges literate bias and calls for methodological expansion within the profession.

"La cama de Procrustes" provides a conceptual metaphor for institutional rigidity. Libraries are criticized for forcing users to adapt to predefined models rather than adapting services to community realities. The critique targets exclusionary practices, bureaucratic inertia, and the uncritical adoption of foreign standards.

"Saber científico y Open Access" situates librarianship within global information economies. It denounces the commodification of knowledge and supports open access as a mechanism for redistributing informational power. The argument links access to broader issues of inequality, development, and epistemic justice.

Across the compilation, librarianship is consistently framed as a practice of mediation, education, and social intervention. The texts reject technocratic reductionism, institutional complacency, and claims of neutrality, proposing instead a model grounded in ethical commitment, community engagement, and the democratization of knowledge.

This compilation gathers blog entries written in 2006, including "Viajando (de Congreso en Congreso…)," "Cuaderno de viaje" (series), and reflections on professional events, travel experiences, and cultural encounters across Asia and Latin America.

"Viajando (de Congreso en Congreso…)" introduces a period of intense professional mobility, outlining a series of conferences across Latin America and Asia while foregrounding a growing concern with the social role of libraries. It frames professional gatherings as potential spaces for exchange and transformation, while already expressing skepticism toward their effectiveness and their tendency toward rhetorical repetition rather than concrete action.

The "Cuaderno de viaje" series documents a transcontinental journey through Malaysia, South Korea, and several Latin American countries, combining ethnographic observation, personal reflection, and professional critique. These entries move between detailed descriptions of landscapes, languages, and everyday life, and critical insights into cultural diversity, colonial histories, and global inequalities. The narrative rejects superficial tourism in favor of immersive, ground-level engagement with people, practices, and environments.

Several entries incorporate reflections on knowledge systems and cultural production. Discussions of Korean printing history challenge Eurocentric narratives by foregrounding earlier Asian technological developments, while commentary on language, translation, and access highlights structural inequalities in the circulation of knowledge. Experiences with multilingual contexts and translation initiatives underscore the importance of linguistic mediation in professional and intellectual exchange.

Professional critique appears interwoven with travel narrative. Observations on international conferences, particularly those linked to IFLA, point to tensions between institutional discourse and lived realities, including issues of language dominance, accessibility, and the limited practical impact of large-scale professional meetings. These critiques are grounded in direct participation and contrasted with grassroots initiatives encountered during the journey.

Encounters with libraries — especially community and children's libraries — provide concrete examples of alternative practices. Descriptions of under-resourced but socially embedded institutions emphasize relational work, reading as a shared practice, and the importance of local engagement over technological spectacle. These experiences reinforce a vision of librarianship rooted in social connection, education, and cultural transmission.

Across the entries, travel functions not as a narrative of discovery in the traditional sense but as a method of comparison and destabilization. Exposure to different cultural, linguistic, and institutional contexts becomes a way of questioning assumptions, confronting internalized frameworks, and situating Latin American librarianship within broader global dynamics. The texts articulate an early stage of a critical trajectory that challenges neutrality, Eurocentrism, and institutional complacency, while proposing a model of librarianship grounded in social responsibility, intercultural understanding, and direct engagement with communities and their knowledge practices.

This compilation gathers the following blog entries published in 2007: "‘Vacas sagradas', mentes vacías, futuro oscuro…," "Oralidad, fondos orales y muchas propuestas…," "Sin sentidos, sin sentido…," "Bibliotecas y derechos humanos," "Memorias…," "Bibliotecas, brecha digital… y nosotros," "Mercaderes de saber, mercaderes de sangre," "Ferias del libro…," "Pero, al final… ¿qué es ‘multiculturalidad'?," "Saqueo de tierras, saqueo de almas," "Discriminación positiva, bibliotecas multiculturales y algo más…," and "Copyright, copyleft…".

"‘Vacas sagradas', mentes vacías, futuro oscuro…" offers a critical reflection on social inequality in Latin America and denounces the disconnect between professional discourse in librarianship and the material conditions of marginalized communities, calling for a shift toward socially committed practice. "Oralidad, fondos orales y muchas propuestas…" examines oral tradition as a fundamental component of cultural memory, highlighting its fragility, its marginalization within professional training, and the need for technical and ethical frameworks for its preservation and dissemination.

"Sin sentidos, sin sentido…" addresses the relationship between libraries and users with sensory disabilities, focusing on deaf and blind communities, and exposing the lack of institutional preparation and cultural understanding required to provide inclusive services. "Bibliotecas y derechos humanos" introduces and contextualizes Toni Samek's work, framing librarianship as a field intrinsically linked to human rights, access to information, and the redistribution of knowledge as power.

"Memorias…" reflects on historical memory in the context of Latin American dictatorships, emphasizing the role of libraries as agents of memory circulation and as safeguards against collective amnesia. "Bibliotecas, brecha digital… y nosotros" analyzes the digital divide, proposing strategies such as open access, professional reorientation, local knowledge valorization, and collaborative networks to mitigate informational inequalities.

"Mercaderes de saber, mercaderes de sangre" critiques the commodification of scientific knowledge, focusing on major academic publishers and linking knowledge economies with broader systems of exploitation, including the arms trade. "Ferias del libro…" offers a critical and personal examination of book fairs as cultural and commercial phenomena, questioning their performative and market-driven dimensions.

"Pero, al final… ¿qué es ‘multiculturalidad'?" interrogates the conceptual ambiguity of multiculturalism in Latin American contexts, arguing that diversity is intrinsic to all communities and that the key transformation lies in the mindset of the librarian rather than in institutional labels. "Saqueo de tierras, saqueo de almas" documents cases of extractivism in Latin America, connecting environmental destruction, social injustice, and the role of information in denouncing and resisting such processes.

"Discriminación positiva, bibliotecas multiculturales y algo más…" critically examines policies of "positive discrimination" and the discourse of multicultural libraries, interpreting them as symptomatic responses to deeper structural inequalities and latent racism. Finally, "Copyright, copyleft…" introduces debates around intellectual property and alternative models of knowledge circulation, situating them within broader tensions between access, control, and the commodification of information.

Taken together, the entries articulate a sustained critique of neutrality, technocratic discourse, and institutional complacency in librarianship, advancing instead a model of the profession grounded in social responsibility, political awareness, and active intervention in processes of inequality, memory, and knowledge distribution.

This compilation gathers the following blog entries published in 2008: "Sobre bostezos…," "Un populu diventa poviru e servu quannu ci arrubannu a lingua," "Voces del pasado," "Caminos de pastores," "El Diccionario del Diablo," "La libertad del saber," "Enciclopedias," "La ruta de la tinta en África," "Un compendio de estupidez humana," and "Pregones y crónicas coloniales…".

"Sobre bostezos…" reflects on the limits of human knowledge through a series of seemingly simple questions, linking epistemic uncertainty, the fragmentation of information, and barriers to access such as copyright and restricted circulation. "Un populu diventa poviru e servu quannu ci arrubannu a lingua" examines linguistic diversity and language loss, drawing on literary, historical, and statistical sources to argue that the disappearance of languages entails the erosion of cultural memory and identity, and questioning the role of libraries in preserving linguistic plurality.

"Voces del pasado" uses a narrative from the Libro de Chilam Balam to explore the preservation of memory under colonial conditions and the political uses of tradition and belief. "Caminos de pastores" documents transhumant cultures in Spain and compares them with analogous practices in other regions, emphasizing the persistence of non-written knowledge systems beyond institutional repositories.

"El Diccionario del Diablo" presents a biographical and critical overview of Ambrose Bierce and his work, reproducing selected definitions to illustrate his satirical critique of language, society, and human behavior. "La libertad del saber" traces the historical transformation of knowledge from a shared communal resource to a commodified asset, analyzing the role of copyright regimes, academic publishing, and open access initiatives.

"Enciclopedias" reviews the history of encyclopedic knowledge, from early Islamic and European works to modern collaborative platforms, while critically addressing Eurocentric narratives in the history of science and knowledge production. "La ruta de la tinta en África" reconstructs the intellectual and documentary history of Timbuktu, highlighting manuscript traditions, scholarly networks, and the existence of extensive library systems in precolonial West Africa.

"Un compendio de estupidez humana" discusses Paul Tabori's The Natural History of Stupidity, summarizing its thematic scope and its use of historical documents to illustrate patterns of irrationality. Finally, "Pregones y crónicas coloniales…" examines colonial street cries through literary sources such as Ricardo Palma, connecting sonic memory, everyday practices, and the persistence of historical cultural forms in contemporary contexts.

Taken together, the entries address knowledge, language, memory, and cultural transmission across written and oral domains, situating libraries and documentary practices within broader historical processes marked by inequality, loss, continuity, and resistance.