Mexico’s MegaLibrary Closes

By María Elena Cruz -- Críticas, 4/1/2007

Almost ten months after its grand opening, the José Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City, which has been considered the most important library in Mexico and possibly in Latin America, closed indefinitely last week due to structural problems. Mexico’s Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Conaculta or “National Council for Culture and the Arts”) announced late last month the suspension of library services. The Vasconcelos library will remain closed until the Comité Administrador del Programa Federal de Construcción de Escuelas (Administrating Committee of the School Construction Federal Program) addresses all the problems and authorities deem the building safe for public use.

The José Vasconcelos Library was the biggest cultural project undertaken during Vicente Fox’s presidency in Mexico. More than 1300 million pesos (almost $118 million) were invested in this project.

The recently appointed library director, writer Ignacio Padilla, told Mexican newspapers the library was opened to the public prematurely. He explained that the decision to close it was necessary in order to finish big and small problems, “…from elevators and bathrooms” to installing a secure connection for better communication. Padilla added that one of the major problems of the library is its “vulnerability to meteorological phenomena.” Since the opening of the library, patrons have told Mexican newspapers that several computers were damaged because of the water filtration after rainstorms.

Padilla said the time would also be used to finish cataloging the library’s books and explained that of the half million books in the collection (which represent 30 percent of the library’s capacity), only 300 thousand have been processed and are available at the library. The rest are still in the library’s warehouse.