Objective/Context:

Created in 1908 in Buenos Aires, the National Association of Libraries (Asociación Nacional de Bibliotecas, anb) gathered part of the local intellectuality concerned with reformism to form a federation of Argentine libraries that would act as a mediator between these institutions and the public authorities. This article examines the rise and the first years of existence of this entity to demonstrate the role of a specific civil group in the institutionalization and centralization of library services in Argentina in the early twentieth century.

Methodology:

For this purpose, we will resort to the hermeneutic and critical analysis of printed primary sources, produced both by members of the Association and by other actors, and to the official documentation of the Argentine national government. In a dialogue with the bibliography, a national library associations’ origin review is proposed to focus on the anb creation and its links with the State.

Originality:

This study contributes to the knowledge of library policies and the conformation of the librarianship field in Latin America by investigating an object that has not yet been examined. Thus, it proposes a renewed look at the past of libraries in the region through the conceptual tools of Socio-Cultural and Political History while giving greater temporal depth to research on the genesis of the professional field in question through the recovery of this early experience.

Conclusions:

Conceived as a body for regulating the functioning of libraries and mediating between them and the State, the anb was unable to exercise both functions with equal effectiveness, given that it did not have sufficient mechanisms to enforce its provisions among the associated instances. However, the grouping revealed from its beginnings a remarkable agency to influence governmental decisions, both at the national and provincial levels.

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