Library History, Vol. 22, March 2006 © CILIP 2006 DOI: 10.1179/174581606x93334 Address correspondence to: Alejandro E. Parada, Dr Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Puán 480, 4º Piso, Of. 8, (C1406CQJ), Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: aparada@filo.uba.ar TOWARDS A NEW HISTORY OF BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN ARGENTINA: BACKGROUND, HISTORY AND PERIODS By Alejandro E. Parada Universidad de Buenos Aires This paper was first presented at a session of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, Buenos Aires, August 2004. The session, entitled ‘Library research in Argen- tina: new approaches’ was organized by IFLA’s Education and Research Division and hosted by the Institute of Library Research, Faculty of Arts, University of Buenos Aires. The past development of the subject of the ‘history of the book and libraries in Argentina’ is divided into four periods. It is argued that, having previously followed a descriptive path, the subject is now influenced by the emergence of cultural history and consequently pays more attention than in the past to broader cultural contexts. As a result, it is now legitimate to refer to a ‘new’ history of books and libraries in Argentina. To research and present the history of the ‘History of Books and Libraries in Argentina’ is a complex, scattered and heterogeneous assignment, full of both positive and negative surprises. 1 In order to analyze this history it is necessary to pay attention to the social, political and economic context of Argentina, which was has been shaped by numerous and different flows of immigration. Argentina constitutes a rich confluence of native and foreign (especially European) cultural identities, and its library history has similarly fluctuated between these two contexts: its American destiny and the European and Anglo-Saxon influences. Within this brief panorama, it is possible to divide the development of the subject of the ‘History of Books and Libraries in Argentina’ into four distinct periods: 1) the beginning of the history of libraries represented by the figure of Paul Groussac; 2) the golden Age of Argentinian library historiography, characterized by the contributions of José Torre Revello and Guillermo Furlong; 3) the foundation of a factual, or descriptive, period, initiated by the publication of a great variety of works dealing with printing, books, journalism and libraries; and 4) the modern transition from the history of the book to the history of reading, as a consequence of the rise of the history of culture. In this exposition, I will explore some of the subject’s principal works, tendencies and characteristics. 1) The first history relating to a library was written by Paul Groussac for the first volume of the Catálogo metódico de la Biblioteca Nacional [Methodical catalogue of the