Linguistic minorities, bibliotheconomic documents and the reality of a public library in Amazônia

ABSTRACT

The paper analyzes the content of 4 documents from the Library Science area regarding attention to linguistic minorities and about issues involving equality of information to the citizens, analyzing the Public Library in Benjamin Constant, a municipality located on the triple frontier (Brazil, Colombia and Peru). The multiculturalism of the region, where urban populations, indigenous people and immigrants in neighboring countries are present, requires the attention to discuss linguistic minorities and informational citizenship. It also presents the results of on-site research, that describes the infrastructure of an Amazonian public library (facilities, equipment, collections, services, staff), and the impression and the vision of 24 residents of the municipality (6 being linked to the area of cultural management; 6 indigenous Ticuna and 12 randomly chosen people). The research concluded that there are no expressive advances in terms of inclusion policies within the public libraries for the 274 indigenous languages mentioned in the 2010 IBGE census in Brazil.

Keywords:
Public Library; Librarians Manifesto; Linguistic minorities; Benjamin Constant, Amazonas