Resumen

VICIEDO VALDES, Miguel. Brief description of the Cuban public libraries before 1959 . ACIMED [online]. 2006, vol.14, n.1. ISSN 1024-9435.

The main antecedents of the Cuban public library in the pre-revolutionary period, before 1959, the main librarian institutions created in the colonial epoch, their impact on the cultural life of the Cuban society and their permanence in time, in spite of the failures and of the lack of financial state support; as well as the deterioration of the public libraries for 58 years, as a reflection of the social, economic, and political impoverishment of the Cuban republican period, are dealt with in this paper.

Palabras clave : Public libraries; history; Cuba.