Abstract

GARCIA PUERTAS, Yulima D  and  BOTANA RODRIGUEZ, Mirta C. The Cuban public libraries in the pre-revolutionary period . ACIMED [online]. 2005, vol.13, n.6. ISSN 1024-9435.

The emergence   and evolution of public libraries in Cuba from the 18th century to the 1950s, or pre-revolutionary phase, are dealt with in this article. In the colonial period, the lack of interest of the Spanish rulers in improving    the educational and    cultural level of the population brought about a delay in the appearance    and development of the public libraries in the country.  A very similar situation was observed in the period of the mediatized republic, in which, in spite of having officially founded public libraries, the interest of the rulers was not the well-being of the population; on the contrary, they tried to maintain the Cubans in the ignorance, so that they were not capable of identifying the real causes of their poverty and abandonment.   The public funds, included those devoted to the people's maintenance and development, went straight to the pockets of the politicians.  Such situation reflects itself in the cultural levels of the population, and in    the state of education in general and of the libraries particularly, along this last pre-revolutionary period.

Keywords : Public Libraries; pre-revolutionary phase; Cuba.

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