Inside Mexican Libraries

By Siria Gastelum -- Críticas, 6/15/2006

It’s a hot afternoon in May. On the same street as a taco stand, a church, a few local shops, and behind a lush palm tree, stands the public library branch of Tacubaya, one of Mexico City’s oldest middle-class neighborhoods. Five young children work quietly on their homework in a dimly lit room, sitting around little tables that could use some new paint. The library looks clean and organized, but the walls and floors are cracked and peeling. “I’d rather do my homework at home,” mumbles young Sagrario Muñoz. Unfortunately, the material she needs cannot be checked out of the library.

This scene is common in many of the 7100 public libraries that make Mexico’s growing Red Nacional de Bibliotecas Públicas (RNBP), the national network of public libraries. Established in 1983, the RNBP is run and funded by the federal government. The main office, in Mexico City, formulates all education and literacy programs for the entire network and provides each local library with its entire book collection, furniture, and equipment, as well as the outreach material and training for librarians. Local governments cover salaries for the personnel and allocate some extra funding, but there is no national standard when it comes to a public library budget.

Census statistics show that each public library in Mexico is visited by an average of 25 users a day, most of them students. Historically, the public library system has been linked to national education policies that make it mandatory for school children to visit libraries. However, this policy has transformed the library from a place to read for leisure to a place to get information only.

“The typical users are elementary and middle-school students,” says Katya Butrón, who studies public library policies at El Colegio de México, a prestigious Mexican institute of higher education that specializes in teaching and research in the fields of social sciences and the humanities. “Most patrons have a negative perception of a library as an uncomfortable and uninviting space, a place for duty instead of pleasure. There is an evident deficiency in the formation of readers,” Butrón adds.

According to Butrón, attending a library is not part of Mexican culture. Even when the heavy governmental presence is not obvious for patrons, “the popular feeling is that libraries are just like any other of the many inefficient public services, ” she explains.

A Renewal Effort

Although Mexico’s publishing industry is the second largest in the Spanish-speaking world, it is still shocking that most Mexicans do not read. UNESCO statistics estimate that the yearly consumption is half a book per person, with only 15 percent of the population reading at least one book a year. To improve these statistics, President Vicente Fox launched “Hacia un País de Lectores” (“Towards a Country of Readers”) in 2001, a national literacy program dedicated, in part, to renovating existing public libraries and opening new branches. The Ministry of Education reports the opening of 1000 public libraries and the renovation of 1,103 during the current administration. This government’s goal is to open 100 additional branches before Fox leaves office this month.

The cornerstone of the program is Mexico City’s “megalibrary” Biblioteca de México José Vasconcelos, named for the Mexican education minister who helped spur the country’s cultural renaissance following the revolution of 1910–20. The Vasconcelos library—which opened on June 1—is the “brain” or mother branch of all public libraries in Mexico. All the branches in the country’s 32 states will be connected electronically to this main branch, which hosts the country’s largest collection. Currently featuring half a million books, the building will eventually house 1.5 million volumes. Designed to serve 15,000 users a day, the 125,000-square-foot building by Mexican architect Alberto Kalach features 750 computers with free Internet access. It displays the works of important artists—including a monumental art installation of a suspended gray whale skeleton—and is surrounded by a botanical garden featuring native flora. So far, the government has spent close to $100 million on what many have called the main legacy of Fox’s administration.

The ambitious project has been surrounded by controversy, and not only due to its cost. Experts like Butrón agree that the model of a mother library will only reinforce the centralization of the RNBP. For Butrón, this “complicated” scheme is not functional since it does not consider each region’s particular needs. “The book collections of public libraries are the same everywhere in the country. There is a lack of material that appeals to the needs of people,” she says.

In addition, librarians in poor states with the highest migration rates (e.g. Chiapas and Michoacan) have publicly expressed disapproval of the megalibrary. They 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.

Continuity at Stake

There are also no published records to show the effectiveness of the readership promotion program “Towards a Country of Readers.” The ministry in charge promises to share positive statistical results sometime this year, before the new president takes office.

Heavy government intervention means that programs and expectations may only last the six years of the presidential term. It is common practice in Mexico for social and educational programs to be discarded and rewritten after every national election. Ultimately, each new head of state introduces a new agenda and a new way to run public libraries. Hence, despite an incomplete catalog system, confusing classification of the collection, unshelved books, and unfinished construction areas, the Vasconcelos library had to open before Fox left office. Of the first 5000 people who visited, more than 60 percent were elementary and junior education students.

“We are aware that in a period of six years everything will be over and we will have to start again,” says Hortensia Lobato, Vice President of the Asociación Mexicana de Bibliotecarios (Mexican Association of Librarians, AMBAC). She agrees that the approaching July presidential election is a concern for librarians. “We are learning that continuity is crucial for our role, and that’s what we are working on at this time,” she adds.

A Much-Needed Dialog

With 500 members, AMBAC is the oldest and largest professional organization for librarians in Mexico. Every year, the association organizes the Jornadas Mexicanas de Biblioteconomía (Mexican Conference for Librarianship) where librarians from all over the country meet with academics and publishers to discuss current concerns. Previous additional participants included U.S. public librarians as well as librarians from the Benjamin Franklin Library, an American public library located in Mexico City.

The U.S. Embassy established the Benjamin Franklin library in 1942 “to promote friendship between the two countries through reading,” says Steven Kerchoff, the Information Resource Officer for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy. Kerchoff is working on building bridges between U.S. and Mexican librarians. “We work closely with our Mexican peers: programming seminars, providing contacts to exchange programs, and inviting guest speakers to share their experiences in U.S. public libraries.”

He admits that librarians in Mexico share a lot of concerns with their American counterparts. “They talk about outreach, they talk about advocacy, how to promote their library services to users and to people who are in a position to make decisions about funding,” he explains. “Library advocacy has been a hot issue in the States for a while and it’s now becoming really important in Mexico.”

The federal government, through the National Network of Public Libraries and the Ministry of Education, provides limited funding for a small number of activities. The most important one is “Mis Vacaciones en la Biblioteca” (“My Vacations at the Library”), a summer program targeting children and focused on the promotion of reading. The federal government designs and sends each branch the outreach and support material, and offers librarians training before the courses.

Each library is free to organize additional programs, but studies reveal that this does not happen very often. One study, conducted in 2005 by the Universidad Autónoma de México, shows that one of the 213 public libraries in Mexico’s capital organizes cultural events such as concerts or public book readings. Most of the libraries only offer the main federal programs and only half of them add arts and crafts workshops.

Despite the lack of funding, Butrón and Lobato see libraries making a turn toward the better, agreeing that the best type of promotion in Mexico is through word of mouth, since people here tend to have very close relationships with neighbors and relatives. “Because we are always short on other things, we rely on that as our best promotion tool,” explains Lobato. “Librarians know they have a big challenge in transforming this nation’s society into one of readers. We try not to focus too much on what we don’t have and instead use our creativity.”

The Past and Future

Libraries are an ancient Mexican tradition. The Aztecs built areas within their temples called amoxcalli to gather valuable manuscripts for consultation by nobles and priests. After the conquest, in 1534, the Spanish founded the first public library of the Americas in Mexico City. The history of Mexico is still present in majestic colonial libraries that have been in use for over 400 years.

However, the future challenges are as great as those of the past. The opening of more libraries is one step forward but is not the sole means of achieving higher readership. The library of the future needs independence to create community programs that appeal to their patrons, as well as stability to sustain it beyond the strains of constant political change.