Path of the public library in provincial Maranhão

Abstract

Analysis of the path of Public Library of Maranhão since its creation in 1829, in Carmo Convent, to 1889. It was formed initially with the support of the elite and the ordinary people, since its genesis until the advent of Republic, the Public Library has been put under different situations, sometimes of complete abandon and others of peak. In this matter, it is rescued the work of librarians and directors that have created the initiatives for the ´socialization´ of the book and reading in Maranhão in the 80´s. From this historical research it is possible to comprehend the role that it has taken in the background of maranhense intelectuality and in the constitution of the educational field, it has been the privileged space of convergent ideas and knowledge of teachers, journalists and politicians that encouraged the foundation of the Oficina dos Novos (Workshop of Novice), Sociedade Civica das Datas Nacionais (Civic Society of National Dates), Academia Maranhense de Letras ( Maranhense Academy of Letters), newspapers, magazines and other actions which helped São Luis to be named as Brazilian Athens. For the rescue of this path, it was made researches on sources as such: newspapers, reports and speeches of Presidents of the Province, legislation, iconography among other documents that made possible to find its ways and non-ways, in the constitution of its heritage and its physical structure. It is concluded that this research by looking back to the past reveals the contradictions in the formation of public libraries and it also opens a debate to the necessity of investigations that bring out the history and memory of these institutions in Brazil.