Blog The Log of a Librarian
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Libraries and archives are not neutral. They have long been tools of power, exclusion, and erasure, but also of social change, resistance, and survival.
In this blog, I explore critical librarianship, and the relation of libraries (and other similar spaces) with social responsibility, decolonial perspectives, feminism, environmentalism, oral traditions, the struggle of social movements, and the knowledge systems of historically marginalized peoples. All that, from an inconformist position in the margins.
This is a space to question, challenge, and reimagine what libraries and archives could —and should— be in a world where memory is a contested territory.
These posts in English are published in parallel on Medium, in a space titled Libraries in the Margins.
Last published posts
Series The Taxonomy of Absence
This series examines how libraries, archives, and museums do more than classify knowledge — they define the boundaries of what is remembered and what is erased. Rooted in colonial and Eurocentric logic, these systems struggle to hold indigenous, oral, and relational ways of knowing, often reducing them to footnotes, anomalies, or outright absences. This series explores not just what is missing, but why it is missing, interrogating the structural biases of cataloging, metadata, and archival practices. Moving beyond the act of "filling gaps," it asks how we might dismantle and reimagine the architectures of knowledge itself.
Keywords: Critical librarianship | Classification | Epistemicide | Memory | Epistemic justice
The Taxonomy of Absence (01) [read] [Medium]
Series Decolonizing my Library
Libraries are not neutral spaces. They have long been instruments of power, shaping knowledge systems that reinforce colonial hierarchies and marginalize alternative epistemologies. This series critically examines how libraries, archives, and classification systems perpetuate colonial legacies—and explores how we can dismantle these structures to build more just, inclusive, and decolonial knowledge spaces. Through deep analysis and reflection, Decolonizing my Library challenges librarians, researchers, and readers alike to rethink what we preserve, how we categorize, and whose voices we center in our collections.
Keywords: Critical librarianship | Decolonization | Colonialism | Knowledge systems | Epistemic justice
Decolonizing my Library (09 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (08 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (07 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (06 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (05 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (04 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (03 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (02 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Decolonizing my Library (01 of 15) [read] [Medium]
Archive
To keep this website focused on the latest publications and manageable in size, while ensuring access to past content, older blog posts are periodically removed from the website and compiled into PDF files, which can be downloaded from this archive.
Series Spoken word, woven word, word made gesture: Other supports in libraries
[Posts #21-#27]
Conference presented at the I Bienal de la Cultura Escrita BibloRed 2024, organized by BiblioRed (Bogotá, Colombia, 25.Sep.2024). The text challenges the hegemony of the book as the sole legitimate medium of knowledge and advocates for the recognition of orality, bodily gestures, three-dimensional objects, and graphic expressions as equally valid forms of memory and knowledge transmission. From a decolonial perspective, it denounces the systematic exclusion of these media in libraries, archives, and museums and argues for their integration into these spaces. The full text can be downloaded from GoogleDrive.
Keywords: Critical librarianship | Orality | Decolonization | Cultural memory | Insurgent libraries | Alternative knowledge
Series The Weavers of Memories
[Posts #9-#18]
Final work of my master's degree in Historical Archival Sciences and Memory at the Pontifica Universidad Javeriana of Bogota (Colombia). The text explores the role of archives in knowledge construction within the natural sciences, challenging their passive function as mere repositories of information. Drawing from experience at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galápagos, I present a critical perspective in which archives become active spaces of memory, capable of reinterpreting documents and generating new narratives. Through documentary and hermeneutic analysis, the study highlights how archives can amplify silenced voices and enrich scientific history. The Galapagueana project serves as a practical application of these ideas, demonstrating the potential of archives to reshape discourse on conservation and scientific research. The full text (in Spanish) can be downloaded from GoogleDrive.
Keywords: Critical librarianship | Archives | Memory | Natural sciences | Narratives | Conservation
Series Library permaculture
[Posts #5-#8]
The text explores the application of social permaculture principles to libraries, archives, and museums, transforming them into resilient, inclusive, and sustainable spaces. Rooted in community observation, diversity integration, localized solutions, and creative adaptation to change, it proposes a holistic approach where knowledge and memory are managed participatively and regeneratively. In this way, libraries not only preserve information but also strengthen social fabric, promote equity, and actively contribute to cultural and environmental sustainability. The full text can be downloaded from GoogleDrive.
Keywords: Critical librarianship | Permaculture | Sustainability | Resilience | Inclusion
Library permaculture (IV) [Medium]
Library permaculture (III) [Medium]
Library permaculture (II) [Medium]
Library permaculture (I) [Medium]
From a rural place [Medium]
Sounds and silences in libraries [Medium]
Decolonize the libraries: A handful of notes (02) [Medium]
Decolonize the libraries: A handful of notes (01) [Medium]
Time not should be given a chance to pass in vain [Medium]
Of libraries, ruralities, and mycelia | Degrowth (02) [Medium]
Their choice | Degrowth (01) [Medium]
The heartbeat of the Mapu | Documents and knowledge on the margins (02) [Medium]
Cooking casssava... | Documents and knowledge on the margins (01) [Medium]
Libraries in the margins (03) [Medium]
Libraries in the margins (02) [Medium]
Libraries in the margins (01) [Medium]