Technician from the U.S. Library of Congress provides assistance to the Paraguayan National Library

October 14, 2008

Miriam Centeno during a workshop.

Miriam Centeno, Collections Conservation Technician from the Library of Congress, visited Asuncion with the objective of providing technical assistance to the Paraguayan National Archives and the Paraguayan National Library. Part of this technical assistance is in the form of workshops on, “The care and handling of library collections”. These workshops took place from October 13 to October 16, 2008 in the Paraguayan National Archives.

The visit to Paraguayan by Miriam Centeno, with support from the Specialist Program of the U.S. Department of State, is highly valuable to the Paraguayan National Archives and National Library. This is because of the technical nature of the delicate and important task of conserving the historical archives of Paraguay.

In addition to these workshops, Miriam will also visit public libraries and educational institutions, meet with the directors of the Paraguayan National Archives and National Library, and give a presentation at the CCPA concerning challenges and opportunities for librarians.

This visit and series of workshops is a continuation of the cooperation by the U.S. Embassy in Asuncion to conserve the cultural heritage of Paraguay. The cooperation began with the project entitled, “Let’s Save the Paraguayan National Library” which consisted of a $35,000 grant provided by the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. The grant focused on microfilming and making digitalized copies of decaying newspapers that dated from 1865 to 1900  providing  future generations of researchers access to archived microfilms and digitalized copies.