PUBLIC LIBRARY: DESCRIPTION OF A METHODOLOGICAL PROPOSAL FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF ITS HISTORY

Abstract

This article presents a general overview of the research project, “History and Development of the Public Library in Medellín,” with emphasis on the methodological proposal employed in this research. This approach made it possible to reconstruct the history of the public library both through social events and the knowledge that individuals have of those events—the players, their actions, and the relationship between the public library and society. This article also stresses the necessity of undertaking research projects that illuminate and help understand the public library from two points of view: (1) its turning points, its crises, its continuity, its trends, and its outlook as they relate to events that, from the point of view of other societies, drive it and identify it as a social institution; and (2) other studies designed to help understand and interpret the processes, reasoning, actions, players, and historical perspectives that have characterized the public library.