Symposium in Puebla, Mexico «Agenda 2030. Heritage libraries and sustainable development goals»

On October 26 and 27, 2022, the Symposium was held in the city of Puebla, Mexico. Agenda 2030. Heritage Libraries and the Sustainable Development Goals organized by the José María Lafragua Historical Library of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla under the academic direction of Dr. Jonathan Hernández Pérez, associate researcher of the Library and Information Research Institute of UNAM and Member of the Governing Board of IFLA . The event was held in a hybrid way, with an in-person audience in the reading room of the Lafragua Library and with an audience in real time through the virtual conference platform Zoom.

The event was inaugurated by Mr. José Carlos Bernal Suárez, Vice Chancellor of Extension and Dissemination of Culture. For his part, Dr. Francisco Rizo Patrón, from the Catholic University of San Pablo (Peru) and coordinator of the project codicis: Strengthening capacities for the Recovery and Conservation of Documentary and Bibliographic Heritage in Latin America, gave a brief explanation of the progress it has made as it nears the end of its second year of execution. He shared with the audience that since September 60 people are being trained as trainers in management and conservation of documentary heritage. These future teachers are part of the staff that works in the six Latin American headquarters of the Codicis project. And in 2023, a pilot course will be carried out to re-transmit this knowledge among people from other institutions that also work with documentary collections with heritage value. The objective is to achieve a greater range of impact by sharing these capabilities with other colleagues so that they in turn acquire the necessary skills to better preserve the collections, implement good practices proven in Europe as well as make more accurate decisions regarding the management in archives and libraries.

This intervention was preceded by Ms. Mercedes Isabel Salomón Salazar, Director of the José María Lafragua Historical Library, who briefly explained the reasons why the topic of sustainable development objectives was chosen and its importance in heritage libraries.

The series of conferences was opened by Dr. Jonathan Hernández Pérez with the topic Sustainable communities: culture and libraries for the next development agendas. Next, Alicia Sellés Carot, who is an independent consultant, Coordinator of the “Libraries and Agenda 2030” Working Group of the Library Cooperation Council (Ministry of Culture and Sports of Spain) and Member of the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain, addressed the topic: Libraries as facilitators and agents for sustainable development.

Closing the day's session, Ms. Pilar Tapia López, Head of the Paper Restoration Workshop of the National School of Conservation, Restoration and Museography of the INAH with the topic The importance of preservation in libraries and heritage collections in the face of the 2030 agenda.

Intervention by Dr. Máximo Román Domínguez López. Moderator: Mtra. Bertha Elia Montellano Villena.

During the second day, the participation of Ms. Jeannette Lebron Ramos, Librarian I of the Library System. University of Puerto Rico and Member of the Association of University, Research and Institutional Libraries of the Caribbean, Chapter of Puerto Rico who presented the very interesting topic Towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Caribbean libraries.

Secondly, there was the important participation of Dr. Máximo Román Domínguez López, from the National Library of Mexico (UNAM), who addressed the topic Challenges in the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty in Mexico. To close, the third conference was given by Dr. Carina Rey, Professor of the Department of Library Science, Documentation and Audiovisual Communication of the University of Barcelona with the topic How do we put the 2030 Agenda into practice? Proposals for library management.

Watch video of the 1st International Conference on Heritage Archives and Libraries: Here