The First Public Library

Today I visited the Biblioteca Publica Piloto which is the main library of Medellin, and happens to be only about 15 minutes from our hostal.

I visited with a nice fellow on the staff named Alejandro who spoke English and is studying for his library degree.

He told me the Piloto library was the first public library in Medellin, founded only 59 years ago in 1952.


The building was originally downtown but moved south of downtown to the present location in 1961. It looks like the library has had several expansions and renovations since, but it is still a modest sized building.

It was kind of quiet on a Thursday afternoon, except for the public access Internet computers which were all taken. I told Alejandro that's true in the U.S. too.

You just can have enough public access Internet computers.

He said they received a grant from the Gates Foundation to increase their public access computing capacity in the entire library system.

Since Alejandro was working on a reference desk I thought he would be interested in hearing about "roving reference," a new trend in U.S. libraries that does away with desks and chairs. I'm all for it.

We also talked about e-books. They are just getting started. This poster talks about what they have to offer. It doesn't sound like much yet.

I wish I had time to visit more locations of the Medellin public library system, but Daniel and I have to move on tomorrow.