Libraries in Argentina: an overview.

In the territory where the Argentine Republic is now, there were both public and private libraries from 1610, set up in the schools and monasteries existing at that time. This clearly shows that the people of this country have had a long tradition in the promotion of reading and cultural aspirations. In the first period, library collections were mostly European, due not only to the place of origin of the authors, but also to the philosophical and political ideas of the period as shown in the works of the great philosophers that enriched the private libraries of the first Spanish colonizers. In the second period, culture was not only European but also indigenous. These cultures intermingled as time passed, with the first editions of Argentine books resulting from the effervescence, typical of domestic writers, in which the mix of cultures always prevailed. Thus the collections of Argentine libraries have undoubtedly had a style distinguished by European ideas and the American style, from the very beginning up to now. This is the background in which the collections of Argentine libraries started and have developed. The first libraries in R&iacutr;o de la Plata, during the Spanish period, started from collections belonging to individuals and religious.