Polish diaspora libraries in Latin America, with special focus on Argentina

Abstract

The article presents two large Polish diaspora’s libraries in Argentina: the Ignacy Domeyko Polish Library in Buenos Aires and the Franciscan Library of Martin Coro nado, Buenos Aires. Authors describe the history of both collections and their creators, in the context of the Polish diaspora library and publishing activities, beginning from the second half of the 19th century. Their goal is to describe the state of collections’ preservation, maintenance issues, and distribution. The article also deals with the issues of Polish reading in Argentina, the role played by these libraries in the life of the Argentinean Polonia, both at the time of the foundation and nowadays. Authors discuss the  prospects for further functioning of both libraries as it is seen from Poland.