Abstract — Inglés
Despite its modest beginnings in the 1930s as a small in–house library for the Banco de la República, the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango today not only provides an impressive array of library resources and services to the citizens of Bogotá, but serves as a rich and important cultural hub for the city as well. The director, Lina Espitaleta de Villegas, describes the way in which the library, privately financed by the Bank, has continually expanded both its holdings—they now include 400,000 books, 8,000 periodical titles, and more than 1,000 newspapers—and its special collections of rare books and manuscripts, maps, photographs, scores, recordings, and videos. Luis Angel Arango’s new building, completed in 1990, has tripled the capacity of the library, and in addition provides flexible, open gathering spaces to house many cultural events.
The need to improve services and to process greater quantities of information led the Luis Angel Arango library to install NOTIS, and automated cataloging, circulation, and acquisitions system. This system links Luis Angel Arango with the National Library, as well as with other public and university libraries. In the future, such links may extend nationwide, forming the basis for a national information system.
The author goes on to describe the Arango’s extension programs in music and art, which boast impressive collections of recordings, musical instruments, and works of art, and whose wide–ranging activities include weekly concerts, lectures, and art exhibitions. Finally, the Luis Angel Arango Library coordinates a network of public libraries and regional information centers in 16 cities, through which unique regional collections may be shared by all network members.
Abstract — Español
La Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango en Bogotá
A pesar de sus modestos inicios en los años 1930 como una pequeña biblioteca del Banco de la República, la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango hoy proporciona no solamente un impresionante conjunto de recursos y servicios bibliotecarios para los habitantes de Bogotá, sino que además sirve como un importante eje cultural para la ciudad. Su directora, Lina Espitaleta de Villegas, describe la manera en la que la biblioteca, financiada con fondos privados del Banco ha continuado expandiendo sus fondos bibliográficos—que incluyen ahora 400,000 libros, 8,000 titulos de pulicaciones periódicas, y más de 1,000 periódicos—y sus colecciones especiales de libros raros y manuscritos, mapas, fotografías, música impresa, grabaciones y videos. El nuevo edificio de la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango (BLAA), terminado en 1990, ha triplicado su capacidad, y además proporciona espacios ámplios y flexibles para albergar muchos eventos culturales que se llevan a cabo allí.
La necesidad de mejorar los servicios y de procesar grandes cantidades de información dirigieron a la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango a instalar NOTIS, el sistema automatizado de catalogación, de circulación y de adquisiciones. Al presente, este sistema une a la Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango con la Biblioteca Nacional, tanto como con otras bibliotecas públicas y universitarias. En el futuro, dichas ligas pueden extenderse a lo largo de la nación, formando las bases de un sistema de información nacional. La autora describe los programas de extensión en música y arte de la BLAA, que cuenta con las extensas colecciones de discos, instrumentos musicales y obras de arte, y las actividades culturales que incluyen conciertos semanales, conferencias y exhibiciones de arte.
Finalmente, la BLAA coordina también una red regional de bibliotecas p&$250;blicas y centros de información en diez y seis ciudades, para que los miembros de la red puedan compartir las colecciones únicas regionales.
In Bogotá a functional and model institution has developed from modest beginnings; today the Luis Angel Arango (BLAA) provides many invaluable services to Colombia’s cultural life. It started as a library for the staff of the Banco de la República (Colombia’s central bank), with a small amount of space in the Bank’s building and a few books on finance and economics; but gradually some of the Bank’s executives became excited about its work. This was in the 1930s. By 1948 the Library had expanded greatly; its holdings were diversified through the acquisition of important private collections, and its services were extended to the general public instead of being limited to the Bank’s staff.
The inauguration of its own quarters—a modern, separate building located in the old part of the city, called Barrio La Candelaria—took place in 1958. It was named the Luis Angel Arango Library in honor of the Bank’s director, who had encouraged cultural activities during his administration. The opening of the building—with a total area of 11,000 square meters—was an important event in Colombia’s cultural life. The Library, financed by the Bank, was one of the best organized in the country; and its building was the first constructed under a concept of an integrated cultural center. There was a reading room for 250 people, storage capacity for 250,000 volumes, exhibition areas, music room, children’s department, and lecture room. The books and magazine holdings then amounted to about 100,000 volumes; and special collections (recordings, works of art, rare books, slides, etc.) were started—all within the premises of a library open to the general public. By this time there were about 1,000 users daily.
In 1965 the building was enlarged; a concert room seating 360 people was added as were two new reading rooms (one for Colombian books and the other for maps); reader capacity was increased to 500; space for exhibitions was expanded, and areas for technical processes and administration were greatly improved. In 1979 the serial collections were transferred to an annex, the Luis López de Mesa Building, in order to enlarge storage capacity for these materials, to assure collection development, and to facilitate access to a larger number of users.
In 1982 study of a new building project to meet the Library’ needs was begun. At that time there were 2,500 daily readers, and the collections had grown to 300,000 monographic and 200,000 serial volumes. The new building was planned to accommodate various cultural activities: research, literature, the fine arts, and music. It was conceived as a place for recreation and for learning, available to all, regardless of age, profession or social status. The integration of cultural expression in a profoundly democratic sense was the Bank’s general policy for its cultural program.
There are three elements in the new architectural project that call for emphasis: first, open space that can be used for various cultural programs without being assigned specifically to one of them, yet at the same time available for traditional activities like reading, exhibitions or concerts. Second, areas are designed with the human dimension in mind and give a sense of integration rather than isolation. Third, the project considers cultural space to be space for the general public to come and stay, thus making a contribution to life in the Candelaria district.
With this new concept of space, archives, reading, research and, most importantly, culture, construction began in 1987; and the new building opened in May 1990 (the Library having been closed to the public for one year). The architect was Alvaro Rivera Realpe, and the construction firm was Cuéllar Serrano Gómez Co.
In its new building—three times as large as the previous quarters—the Library has 11 reading rooms: General Reading Room, Reference Room, Periodicals Room, Map Room, and seven special subject rooms (Arts and Humanities, Science and Technology, Social Science, Economics, Agricultural Sciences, Audio–Visual Material, and Rare Books).
The Library can accomodate 2,500 readers, and its organization provides for levels of specialized services. Every room provides for reference, reading, and research and has a small open shelf collection. Each is connected to the general stack area by an automated book request system, and an efficient system of both horizontal and vertical delivery allows all kinds of material to be brought to and returned from each reading room.
The research area consists of 30 individual study rooms that can be used by a single person or by a group; they are assigned for certain blocks of time. The stacks have a capacity of 1,500,000 volumes.
At the present time the Library has approximately 400,000 volumes, both general and specialized, from Columbia and the rest of the world, in Spanish and other languages, for beginners and for advanced researchers. The Library acquires new publications in systematic fashion, assisted in selection both by specialists and general users.
In spite of its youth as an institution, the Library has among its rare and special collections an important group of incunabula and hundreds of editions from 16th and 17th centuries, many of them first editions and some unique copies. Here also are found the most important publications of Santa Fe de Bogotá from the 18th century—a collection that begins with 1738, date of the first printing press in Columbia. There are manuscripts from earlier centuries, some of which deal with Columbia’s history from the Spanish conquest to the end of the 19th century. In addition, readers have access to special collections of pictures, maps, recordings, music scores, and videos.
Approximately 8,000 titles, both national and foreign, are represented in the serial holdings. For Columbian titles the Library’s policy has been to collect and preserve all published periodicals. Various historical periods are represented in the holdings, making this a historical record from the 18th century to the present. Over a thousand Columbian titles, from the first magazines issued in the 18th and 19th centuries up to current titles issued in Columbia or abroad and dealing with the country, are currently received. Microfilm copies of 19th–century titles enable the original to be better preserved.
There were several reasons for the Library to select an automation system which would allow it to operate with efficiency: the necessity to accelerate and to improve its services and the growing amount of information to be handled were the principal ones. NOTIS (Northwestern On–line Total Integrated System) was the system that BLAA chose to control its bibliographic processes. This system includes modules for handling various library functions in an integrated way, including acquisitions, cataloging, control of serials, circulation, authority files, and statistical information needed by the administration. The data bank contains the descriptions of the different types of material acquired: books, magazines, manuscripts, slides, records, maps, etc.
This program, under development by Northwestern University (USA) since 1970, was installed in the BLAA in 1987. It operates with an IBM 4361 computer and has approximately 80 terminals—50 for public use and the rest for the Library’s technical processes and administration. A qualified group of technicians from NOTIS is responsible for improvements and enhancements to the system.
In addition to its own automation, the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango has begun an interlibrary network connecting it with the Columbian National Library and a number of public and university libraries. The goal is to establish a national network in the future which would support the development of a national information system and guarantee bibliographic support for research in all subjects.
When the Library opened in 1958, it began a record collection and a series of listening programs in the Music Room; at present the collection has 12,000 discs and more than a thousand tapes. Later, with the Library’s 1966 expansion, a 360–seat concert hall was opened; there is now a regular concert series, including weekly programs by national and foreign artists. In 1982 the Library received as a donation the Music File and the Musical Instrument Collection of the musicologist Ignacio Perdomo; there is a permanent exhibition of material from this gift. Beside the regular programs in the Music Room, the Library has other music events, such as programs by young performers on Mondays and music for youth on Sundays.
A Fine Arts Program was also begun in 1958 with the goal of making national and foreign art works available to the general public. The collection of art now includes 3,000 pieces, with special emphasis on Columbian art. Exhibitions of works by both national and foreign artists take place throughout the year, and there are also instructional programs such as a project to promote the work of talented young artists.
The Luis Angel Arango Library functions as the coordinator of a network of public libraries and documentation centers in the following cities: Riohacha, Cartagena, Girardot, Ibagué, Pereira, Manizales, Pasto, Ipiales, Armenia, San Andrés, Montería, Santa Marta, Leticia, Quibdó, Cúcuta and Tunja.
Resources in each unit consist of the same basic collection and another containing specific materials about the region (history, geography, ecology, etc.) and about topics of local interest (agriculture, industries, handicrafts, etc.). These libraries also form regional documentary collections (archives, photographs, maps, etc.), making them true regional documentation centers, all integrated into a library network. These branch libraries also serve as cultural centers where music, art and other cultural programs are priority activities.
Lina Espitaleta de Villegas is Director of the Luis Angel Arango Library in Bogotá
© 1992 Dominican University
Citation
Espitaleta de Villegas, Lina, “The Luis Angel Arango Library in Bogotá” Third World Libraries, Volume 3, Number 1 (Fall 1992).
Brief History