BIBLIOGRAPHIC HERITAGE AND CULTURAL MEDIATION AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF MARANHÃO

Abstract

This study analyzes, based on institutional reports from the Public Library of Maranhão, the Benedito Leite Public Library (BPBL), produced between 1900 and 1920, how the institution constituted, organized, represented, and mediated its bibliographic and documentary heritage collections, considering their social uses in processes of preservation, communication, and construction of Maranhão’s cultural memory. It is an exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study, grounded in bibliographic and documentary research and conducted through categorical-thematic content analysis. The results show that donations, purchases, exchanges, and legal deposit represented not only quantitative growth, but also practices of selection, legitimation, and patrimonialization of written culture. The study observes that catalogs, card indexes, regulations, buildings, furniture, and public reading initiatives articulated technical, symbolic, and political dimensions of collection management. It concludes that the BPBL acted as an institution of memory, mediation, and heritage management, projecting Maranhão’s intellectual identity into public circuits of information, regional culture, and public research.