LLEI D'ART 11

de oficio El bibliotecario La profesión de bibliotecario está íntimamente relacionada con la aparición de la escritura, de los distintos soportes en los que se han registrado y se inscriben los contenidos y con los medios utilizados para acreditar propiedades, difundir conocimientos y sentimientos. También ha dependido de la evolución de la sociedad, en particular de su grado de alfabetización y de enseñanza. En el bibliotecario, asimismo, han incidido las capacidades de los instrumentos y de las tecnologías empleadas para realizar sus tareas a lo largo de la historia. Es una profesión tan antigua como las primeras tabletas de arcilla empleadas por las culturas del Oriente medio o los papiros de los escribas egipcios. Sin un conocimiento de los elementos enumerados en el párrafo anterior, no puede ser comprendida en su totalidad. Su propósito es, al mismo tiempo, muy antiguo y muy nuevo: cada generación parece reinventarla, cuando lo que en realidad hace es adaptarla al contexto en el que se desarrolla. La finalidad del bibliotecario es organizar la información existente en los documentos que la contienen. La organización, como su preservación y conservación, no es el objetivo en sí. El auténtico fin es facilitar el acceso y la disponibilidad de las publicaciones a los ciudadanos para que se desarrollen como individuos y, con ello, progrese la sociedad en la que viven. Pongamos un ejemplo. La cultura, las ciencias y técnicas están formadas por sucesivos eslabones. El científico de hoy fundamenta sus investigaciones en las efectuadas por sus antecesores, que dejaron documentadas en artículos de revistas, actas de congresos, informes, libros… cualquiera que sea su soporte o medio de acceso. Si no se actuase así, existiría el riesgo de repetir cada invento y de aumentar los recursos de toda índole, necesarios para conseguir un nuevo hallazgo. Si alguien no organizara las publicaciones on the job The librarian The profession of librarian is closely linked to the appearance of writing, the various media on which content has been inscribed and registered, as well as to the media used to confirm properties and to spread knowledge and feelings. It has also followed the evolution of society, especially insofar as its degree of literacy and teaching goes. Thus, the librarian has brought together and made use of the capabilities of the instruments and technologies used to this end throughout history. It is a profession as old as the first clay tablets used by the cultures of the Middle East or the papyruses of the Egyptian scribes. Without a knowledge of those elements mentioned in the previous paragraph, librarianship cannot be understood in its entirety. Its function is both very old and very new at the same time: each generation seems to re-invent the profession, when in reality all it does it adapt it to the context. The point of a librarian is to organize existing information in the documents that contain it. Organization, like preservation and conservation are not the objectives per se : the real aim is to provide access to and availability of publications to the citizenry so that the latter may develop and consequently advance the society they live in. An example: culture, science and techniques are all formed by successive links. The scientist of today bases his investigations on those of his predecessors, who documented them in journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, books, whichever medium it may be. If this was not the case, there would be the risk of repeating inventions and increasing all the resources necessary to make new discoveries. If nobody organized the publications that document these discoveries and subsequently made them available, scientists and engineers would not know of their existence or would take a long time to find about the work previous to their own. Given this, the work of librarians is key to investigation, development and innovation, as well to all those people who educate children and young people in the various stages of education. The work of the librarian consists of completing a series of tasks that, depending on the degree of responsibility and qualifications, require both interdisciplinary and specific knowledge. The latter is taught in the Library and Information Science (LIS) degrees and in various Masters programmes in Spanish universities. Colleges, professional associations and other public administration institutions also offer single-subject or generalized courses both online and in-person using telecommunication networks to access content and to facilitate teacher-student communication. There are two main areas of knowledge necessary in the constitution of a library: the user and the collections. Librarians with any type of responsibility, whatever the type of library they work in, need training in planning techniques, organization and resource management, as well as instruction in personnel regulations, contracting goods and services, health Sala de lectura del Museo Británico. Ubicada en el centro del atrio central del BM, solía ser la sala principal de la biblioteca británica, actualmente trasladada al nuevo edificio sede de la biblioteca, en San Pancracio (Londres), aunque la sala de lectura sigue manteniendo su forma original/ The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the BM, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. This function has now been moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form. Foto Christopher Chan. 68