The public library between a heterotopia and na utopian

Abstract

The present work has as an object the public library, understood as social, cultural and memory institution. Stemming from the reading that, as long as the distance between the field literature and the reality on which it underpins persists, this institutional and cultural equipment remains in crisis, we propose a rereading of its conceptual bases. The research is classified as theoretical because it articulates constitutive elements of the definition of public library, such as its mission, value and functions, with its powers and forces, calling into question current concepts, the common valuation and the effective usefulness of this institution. To conduct such course, it has been chosen to scrutinize the concept of “heterotopia” submitted by Foucault (2013) in his homonymous conference, in order to update the notion of public library as heterotopian space, “other-place”, and to advocate the notion of public library from this perspective. The use of this conceptual apparatus provides us with the necessary tools both for analyzing the public library experience and for highlighting the difference between the utopian bias (and of “utopian bodies”) and the heterotopian bias taken about this institution, likewise to contribute to the scientific literature in Public Librarianship.