Paraná Public Library, Argentina

The Paraná Public Library (Biblioteca Popular del Paraná) was founded in the 1870s in the city of Parana, north-central Argentina. It is one of the oldest public libraries oldest in Argentina. The library building opened in 1910, and was declared a national historic monument in 2006. Its main reading room stores over 60,000 books, and it has an active acquisitions policy, obtaining books at professional discount prices at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair. It was designed by two prominent Italian architects working in Argentina, Rodolfo Fasiolo and Jacobo Pedro Storti.  Both were disciples of the noted Norwegian-born architect Alejandro Christophersen, a professor at the University of Buenos Aires. Fasiolo and Storti were renowned for their buildings in the Art Nouveau, Eclectic and Neoclassical styles. Another architect, Pedro Fabro, supervised the construction of the library. The city of Paraná is an important river port for the shipping of cattle, fish, lumber, and other products from the surrounding area. The principal industries installed are the manufacture of cement, furniture, and ceramics. Among the library’s many activities to promote reading and literacy is a popular literary competition with separate prizes given to adults, teenagers, and children over age ten. Since 2010, the library has published award-winning works in each category. The awards jury judges submissions without knowing the names of the contestants, any school which they might attend, or any other personal information. To avoid favoritism, no close relatives of members of the jury may enter the contest in the categories which the jury members are judging. Library staff also may not participate in the contest. For the purposes of the competition, stories are considered unpublished if they have not appeared in book form. Stories that have appeared on blogs or websites are seen as unpublished for the purposes of the contest and may be entered.

Another popular event at the library to encourage reading among youngsters is the annual Pajama Night, where children are encouraged to spend a night in the library with their parents, grandparents, and other close relatives. Mara Muscia of the library communications department, explained in 2013:

The idea is to spend a special night, making sure that the kids are connected to reading in a playful context, while allowing adults to value library resources and spend more time with the children, helping them to develop as people… Older people are invited to take care of the younger ones, in their pajamas, and to take over the space by repeating the idea that everyone should bring the little ones to the pleasure of reading. The event is free of charge… We want to have fun and take away for a moment the formal tone of the building, so that the children lose any the fear of establishing that all-important connection to books. [This is also an occasion for] grownups to perhaps remember that the library is an available resource, easy to use, giving them an opportunity to spend more time with their children and help them develop as individuals…In addition to thousands of books, dozens of performers from the city will generously donate their time and talent telling stories and presenting theater, circus, live music, and games, among other activities.

The reading-related activities begin at 8pm. For the occasion, the library is redecorated with chairs, tables, and other furnishings appropriate for smaller children, and even a specially designated place for changing diapers. The only condition for all those attending, whether children or adults, is that everyone wears pajamas.

The library’s status as one of only two libraries that are national historical monuments give bloggers hope that needed renovations, as described in a November 2016 blog, will be possible soon. Given the building’s age, it is not surprising that in its auditorium, the masonry and ceiling need repair, among other structural issues. Before being closed for safety and health reasons for the past eight years, the auditorium of the Biblioteca Popular was an essential local space for cultural and academic events, seminars, and meetings.

Thailand and Argentina

In 2011, the Financial Times (FT) reported that Thailand and Argentina shared the feature of being sometimes overlooked by foreign investors. Khun Atikrai (Jeep) Chatikavanij, founder of the Bangkok-based firm, Hunters Investments and portfolio manager of the Ton Poh Thailand Fund was quoted in the FT article:

As one of the best performing markets in Asia, Thailand was clearly the surprise story of 2010. The outlook for the coming year is just as optimistic. Likewise, Argentina may also deserve more investment attention than it receives. Perhaps in awareness of this status in common, Thailand and Argentina have strengthened international cooperation in recent years. In 2013, Investvine.com noted that ten new cooperation projects had been agreed upon:

Cooperation between Thailand and Argentina began to intensify in 2010 with the first Argentina-Thailand Joint Committee and the subsequent signing of five development projects, mainly in the agriculture sector. In March 2013, another ten projects were approved. The new projects will cover cooperation in the field of agriculture, education and astronomy, as well as genetics, and will receive financial support from the Argentina Fund for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (FO-AR) and the Thailand International Cooperation Development Agency (TICA).

Earlier this month, it was announced that traders from Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Peru would be invited to THAIFEX-World of Food Asia 2017. An influential food and beverage, food technology, and retail and franchise exhibition, held from May 31 to June 4, THAIFEX-World of Food Asia is announced as the largest food and beverage show in Asia. It is held at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center Muang Thong Thani, Popular Road, Banmai Subdistrict, Pakkred District, Nonthaburi.

Cultural collaboration

In 2014, Thailand and Argentina cooperated on a cultural project at the Peace Palace Library in the Hague, the Netherlands. The Peace Palace Library specializes in international law, and is open to all students of the subject, as well as serving institutions housed in the Peace Palace, including the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the Hague Academy of International Law. On that occasion, the Embassies of the Kingdom of Thailand and of Argentina donated books to the library to expand its national law collection. The Royal Thai Embassy presented to the Peace Palace Library a copy of Khamʻathibāi pramūan kotmāi phǣng læ phānit wādūai bukkhon, a three-volume treatise on Thai criminal law by Ajarn Čhitti Tingsaphat (1908-1995). Ajarn Čhitti was a distinguished graduate of Thammasat University who later served as a professor and dean of the TU Faculty of Law, president of a chamber in the Supreme Court of Thailand, President of the Senate, and member of the Privy Council. He wrote a number of standard textbooks on civil and commercial law, still very much used and appreciated today by new generations of students of ajarns.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).