This is a collection of papers written for the 35th annual meeting of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1990. It represents a solid contribution to the growing body of literature on issues confronting libraries in their efforts to collect research materials from Latin America. The theme of the meeting was suggested by its location; therefore, a significant number of the papers concentrate on the changes taking place in Brazil in the late twentieth century and the forces and traditions that influence those changes. Several papers examine similar and divergent trends in other Southern Cone countries—Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay—while others examine recent Latin American developments in publishing, bookselling, libraries, and information technology.
The focus of the contributions was to analyze social, economic, political, and cultural trends and manifestations of change and their implications for libraries responsible for maintaining collections of research material from this region. The authors represent a variety of perspectives and backgrounds, as well as a broad sample of the most knowledgeable librarians specializing in Latin America and other scholars who value the study of the region, its institutions, ideas, values, and people. The topics range from “Standards, Trends, and Data Collection for Latin American Collections” to “Trends in Contemporary Literature of Brazil and the Southern Cone.” The comments that follow mention only a few.
One of the most informative papers is “National Trends in the Support of Latin American Studies.” It gives a brief history of area studies programs in the United States since the turn of the century, their phenomenal growth in the 1960s, their decline in the 1970s, and the effect this has had on campuses nationwide. This paper offers some hope that the darkest hours for area studies may have passed; several foundations are now renewing their support, and universities are working more forcefully with their alumni and major corporations to gather additional backing.
Another important paper, “Statistics for Latin America Collections,” reviews the preliminary findings of a statistical survey taken of major Latin American library collections. One of the most encouraging impressions it conveys is that Latin America is perhaps the most strongly supported world area in U. S. academic libraries.
Three excellent papers call for greater attention to sectores populares and interest groups in Brazil, both as creators of information and as centers of collection-development efforts. One paper details the maturation process that Brazilian ecological movements have undergone in the past 20 years. Another analyzes the new technology springing from the women’s movement in Brazil. The longest paper in this group traces violence as a theme in Brazilian history and its effect on the plight of the landless in contemporary Brazil.
The essays on contemporary literature in the Southern Cone are brief but authoritative. The topics range from the contemporary Brazilian short story and its roots in the second generation of the “Modernista” movement to a group of Argentine authors called the “Generación del 70,” who began writing between 1965 and 1973. These essays represent important scholarly contributions to the ongoing discussion of these topics.
A number of papers are dedicated to librarianship in the Southern Cone, reflecting on the professional challenges faced by Latin American librarians as a result of the rapid growth of information. Among those challenges is the need to acquire a university-based foundation in the skills necessary to respond creatively to emerging technological, educational, and scientific demands. Other papers address the problems encountered by Latin American academic libraries in acquiring library materials from Latin America. Their biggest difficulty is identifying sources for the material and obtaining timely price information for budget preparation. The paper “La bibliografía argentina” points to the lack of a national information policy as the fundamental reason why Argentine bibliography (and that of Latin America in general) has lagged behind developments in other scientific and technical areas.
In general, the papers in this collection provide cogent analytical narratives on specialized issues together with innovative solutions. In many cases the information is supported by statistical data, and several papers contain selected bibliographies. These comments provide only a very limited glimpse of the many strengths in this collection. To the reader the volume offers a compact but informative overview of research trends in the Southern Cone and of Latin American library collections in the United States as well as in the countries of this region. It will be especially useful for specialists in the field, but it will also provide all those interested in Latin America with critical analysis on a wide assortment of subjects.
