REVISIÓN CONCEPTUAL DE LA BIBLIOTECA PÚBLICA

Abstract

This article derives from the conceptual revision developed within the research project: "Incidencia de la biblioteca publica en los jóvenes/The incidence of Public  Libraries in Youths" which framed by a brief overview about the emergence of public libraries in Latin America. It continues by scanning and analyzing the concepts formulated by the principal institutions dealing with the development  of  this kind of information units, such as Unesco, IFLA and the Public Libraries Division of Colcultura; or concepts emitted in events such as the Latin-American Conference for the Develoment of Librarianship Services: and the Regional Meeting for the Present State and Strategies for the Development of Public Libraries in Latin- America.  Also some other concepts are taken from subject -matter expert librarians. This analysis is based on seven components: Time, Author(s), Nature, Purpose, Characteristics, Focusing and Comments. Then, the occurrences and breaks found in the conceptual revision are mentioned; and finally a new concept of public library is proposed, which more than descriptive, functional is sufficient and worthwhile,  when considering the role public libraries play in a society, specially from their social-and-cultural standpoints. This approach focuses on an even accomplishement of the four  historically-set goals: Informative, Educational, Amusing and Cultural.