The archive

The accomplice’s profile

2009-11-06T11:11:00.007-03:00

In the Spanish dictionary it is said that the first meaning of “profile” is “delicate and fine adornment”, and the second has to do with “a thin and delicate line”; the third one refers to “a body position that only let you see one of the two lateral halves of it”, the fourth indicates that it is related to “a particular or flashy aspect that something possesses and by which it is presented in front of your eyes or in your mind”; if I am not wrong, it is the fifth one what Edgardo wanted me to write in this section: “a group of qualities or personal traits that are the most representative or characteristic of a person”. However, meanings continue to appear in the page of my dictionary and, actually, I am not very sure of what I had to tell you… Anyway, do not worry, I am not going to look up in it the word “accomplice”, because I think that we would have made a mess of things and, in the end, neither you nor me would know who I am. Just a brief note in advance: in that search (no with the dictionary in my hands, but day after day) I am still working, trying to seek not really who I am, but truly who I want to become…
At the moment, I can say that my name is Sara Plaza and was born the 4th of June in 1972, in a place whose name, as any other “madrileña”, always pronounce wrongly: let’s say that we are talking about Madrid. In fact, I am from a very small village in the middle of the mountains, which somebody called the “poor” mountain range of the Province of Madrid: Bustarviejo. I was there the first twenty years of my life, and there birds were born in my head and wings came out of my feet. It is not a joke, I wanted to be a pilot, but when I was a child someone discovered that I was short-sighted. So, as the number of dioptres of my glasses got higher and higher, my flight hours got drastically cut (in the cabin I mean, because luckily I have been able to catch many planes and travel to many different places).
Then I decided to study Physics. Since I would have not become an astronaut either, I gave renovable energies a chance and studied how to use light and energy from the sun to produce hot water and electricity. Nevertheless, I was not able to reach the stars though I came near a few times after having got some scholarships. Those grants -as if they consisted of the very same material that magic rugs are made-, took me over the skies of many different towns and villages, and allow me to cross a few seas and even the ocean.
Walking on the clouds many times, and having done some misguided attempts to follow the scientific path, I swan next to the humanistic shore and finished studying to become a teacher. And, what is even more curious about it, I did it as an English teacher for children and ended my studies in an Argentinean faculty at the University of Córdoba.
No, I am afraid; I do not have an answer to this mystery, so neither ask yourself nor me about it. My life has been a journey into the unknown, there are still a lot of questions related to this “mestiza” –myself- who chose to be exactly that: someone with no roots who let their brownish leaves go in the autumn and welcome the green new ones in the spring… After having faced a good number of situations that made it difficult for me to achieve a happy end, and having managed to overcome some of them, which left me a few scars deeper than those marks that remain on the skin when we fall down being a child, I carried once more the backpack on my shoulders and made the decision of crossing the ocean in order to dream throughout the South American continent, to walk its paths and to find mine.
And that is it. I arrived there and there I decided to stay, and it seems as if the spring had decided to live forever in my heart and along the smile that dances in my mouth.
One day I was confident that I would be able and the following I tried to do it. The day after that found me opening my eyes to the place that I had been looking for during many years. Seeking my place I came to that corner of the world where I met the project of myself. Reader, traveler and in love, it is said by those who know what they say that those are the symptoms of disturbing citizens since we cannot be controlled. Hand in glove with Edgardo, and with a book in the other; with the smell of thyme in both feet and the taste of bitter “mate” in my bowels, day after day I feel more and more sure about the fact that it is worth to live. At the same time I continue believing in what Freire repeated once and again: reality is not like it is, reality looks like it is, so let me doing what I do best, to keep on living: to walk, to stumble, to get up, to dream, to try, to love, to tell, to read, to write, to ask, to listen to... To keep on learning and never forget that I have everything to do...

Author’s profile

2009-11-06T11:11:00.006-03:00

Who I am?

That’s a good question. I know that I was born in 1973 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), that my name´s Edgardo Civallero, and that I am Argentinean from birth and Latin American by own decision. I know that I fell in love with books, maps and music when I was a child, and with indigenous cultures a bit later. And I never forgot these loves. I know that I studied Librarianship at the National University of Córdoba –the Argentinean city where I lived until 2008- and that, as a result of such a career, I received, in 2004, a paper where you can read “First Degree in...”. But I remember that, long time before I received that “paper” –meaning nothing to me- I worked for years developing libraries in aboriginal communities in NE Argentina (2001-2007) and in rural villages in northern Córdoba (my province, 2002-2006). I also recovered oral tradition, learnt the Open Access philosophy and spread it (working with E-LIS between 2004 and 2006), I gave courses and seminars here and there, I wrote papers, I participated in forums, I worked with UDC and I became a member of the Standing Committe of IFLA´s Libray Services to Multicultural Populations Section...

I know that I taught new things to public librarians (through my program, “Informing Informators”). I also worked with the PROPALE in Reading Animation tasks, I wrote in the Wikipedia, I collaborated with half a dozen Open Access Archives in Latin America, I had my own independent company providing bio-medical information, I edited this and other blogs alongside my wife, I worked as editor for the LIS journal "Biblios" and for the journal "Information for Social Change", I travelled a lot because I am a nomadic soul, and I wrote four digital books (in Spanish) on indigenous libraries.

Am I all this?

Not at all... That’s “what” I am, circumstantially, not “who” I am... Actually I am a dreamer fighting for peace and equality; a crazy man who feels rage in front of injustices; an artist moved by the touch of old books; a musician turning his dreams into sounds; a library rat, almost blinded by too much reading; a lover of life and beauty; a lonely wolf looking for his place in the world among the arms of a woman; a winner laughing all his laughter and a loser crying all his tears...
I am an anarchist. And this is the reason of a lot of my attitudes.

I am a human being who still spends a lot of time writing letters to those who write him, helping people who need help, and smoking a couple of pipes in front of a couple of beers, with my friends.

That’s who I am. Even if that’s not interesting from a professional point of view, I’ll not carry my profession to the grave: I’ll carry precisely this free and romantic little piece of light, which lives inside my heart: the light that makes me who I am, the light that nobody can take away from me, the light that makes me a free soul and a slave of my feelings...

Maybe all these words are boring. But if you’re reading them, whoever you were, it means that you wanted to know who the persons behind all this weblog were. Well, as far as I’m concerned, now you know it...

Welcome to our place...

A rough guide

2007-08-22T09:28:00.002-03:00

You are more than welcome to the log of a librarian (and a teacher)!
“The log of a librarian” is a personal weblog, the diary of a never ending journey that reflects the tread of a couple –an Argentinean librarian, Edgardo Civallero, and a Spanish teacher, Sara Plaza- through their daily adventures, and their troubles, discoveries, successful and unsuccessful stories in the framework of Latin America.
This weblog was published between 2004 and 2008, and now is continued in the blog “Civallero & Plaza” (in Spanish). It’s a part of a bigger net of weblogs, most of them written in Spanish.
It has a main body (the main part of the page) where we showed our opinions and very brief essays on particular issues related to the world of libraries and the reading, but also with trips, politics, education and society. On the right side of this web page you will find now a few sections, including a short introduction (authors’ profiles, contact, the blogs network) as well as access to the archives, the previous posts and the original version of the weblog in Spanish. All contents are protected by a Creative Commons license, and therefore we expect our readers to use and quote these shared contents in an appropriate way.
In general terms, this is what our weblog is about. However, you will very likely discover many more things as you be surfing our pages. The doors will always be open for you to come in and visit to us, to drop us a few lines if you want to, or to leave the mark of your tread through this “log of a librarian”, which is more than this: it is a “log of two” written for many…