Panorama sobre bibliotecas indígenas en Argentina

The present work aims to offer an overview of librarian services available in Argentina’s indigenous communities. In order to reach such an objective, a lot of different experiences along the Country, had been severely studied, getting an updated a situational statement about how the librarian attention is been doing in communities with indigenous population. A direct survey and a personal contact with each one of them allowed an accurate evaluation of the real condition of collections, as well as the different services offered, interdisciplinary groups of work and their relation with Intercultural-Bilingual Schools and also information resources and people working in librarian tasks. In the same way, as result of several meetings with those who are in charge of librarian developments, some complementary issues had emerged, involving different themes of particular interest for an indigenous community having any relation with libraries, such as: oral transmission vs. writing transmission (“oralidad-escritura”); necessity of unify criterions about linguistic standards; convenience of working with the so-called “living-books”; importance of being able to consult bilingual supports; and acceptance of two spaces considered as very valuables by the indigenous people descendants, such as “museums” and “radios”. This work intent to explain what had been done, in Argentina, as far as the present time, in those libraries located in schools, in educational or cooperative institutions, and in documentation centers, which are trying to serve and promote native people, discovering at the same time, that the concept of the so-called “Indigenous Libraries”, understood as pluralistic and interdisciplinary places allows to preserve an re-create culture. They are undoubtedly an excellent way to unify the cultural patrimony of these communities. Such considerations may be verified trough most of the analyzed cases