Bibliothecários precussores em Minas Gerais: atuação dos primeiros bibliotecários em Minas no século XIX

Abstract

This paper proposes a historical reconstruction of the earliest days of librarianship in Minas Gerais from the libraries and librarians context at the time. As indicated in the literature, the vast majority of studies relating to libraries in Minas Gerais focuses on the eighteenth century, during the colonial Brazil. In these studies there are possession of books and private libraries analyzes; however, there is little information about the librarians. Therefore, the present work is based on three main questions: 1) What individuals worked as librarians? 2) From which place did these individuals come from and were allowed to exercise the job in that context? 3) Where were the libraries in the cultural universe of that time? Thus, the aim of this research is to identify and characterize the performance of the librarians precursors in Minas Gerais in the nineteenth century. Regarding the methodological construction, it has exploratory and descriptive nature, since the discussions start from reading, analysis and primary sources interpretation, as well as: the "speech", the provincial "reports", Minas Gerais legislation and Periodicals of the province of Minas Gerais. As a result, it is observed that in both, Minas Gerais and Brazil, public libraries have predominated, but did not have a solid social base, because there were only a few social segments that made up the group of readers this fact reflected on the librarians profile. In addition, many librarians were identified, what shows the society necessity towards this occupation. The librarians job was a public occupation and those who did the work were usually people from the high society. Throughout this work, it was possible to better understand and meet those who were the announcers of librarianship in Minas Gerais and, consequently, in Brazil