Ponce Municipal Library

Gabinete de Lectura

The origins of the Ponce Municipal Library date to the establishment in Ponce of the "Gabinete de Lectura" in 1869-1870, founded by Alejandro Tapia y Rivera. The Gabinete de Lectura was the first educational, cultural, and scientific center in Ponce. The Gabinete was established in 1870 by Federico Perez, Antonio Molina, Jr., Diego Vicente Texeira, Rafael Rodriguez, Luis R. Velazquez, Angel Aguerrevera, and Eduardo Neumann Gandía, and was located on Calle Sol. The central government in San Juan closed it down in 1874 out of fear that the common people would become educated and rebel against the government. However, it was reopened in 1876 by a group of people that included some of its original founders plus Dr. Rafael Pujals, Oscar Schuck, Alfredo Casals, Antonio Molina, Ramon Rivera, Jacobo Tur, Sergio Cuevas Zequeira, Juan Cuevas Aboy, Oriol Pasarell, Fancisco Oliver, Manuel Mayoral Barnes, and Manuel Yordan.

The first library

The Ponce Municipal Library was formally founded in 1890 and re-organized in 1894. This first library was located on the first floor of Casa Alcaldia building, on what is now Calle Plaza Degetau, but at the time was considered part of Calle Villa. It contained 1,500 volumes that came from the "Gabinete de Lectura", the private collection of Manuel Rosich, a prominent local educator, and donations from citizens at large. The first librarian was Joaquin Figueroa. The library started with 809 books and 669 pamphlets. By 1913, the total number of volumes was over 4,754, including 2,818 books and 1,936 periodicals. In 1937, the library was restarted under the leadership of Luis A. Ferre. The library later relocated to Isabel street in what is now the Ponce Historic Zone. In 1940, mayor Jose Tormos Diego reconditioned the northern annex of Teatro La Perla to be used as the headquarters of the Ponce municipal library.

Originally a non-circulating library, in 1945 the Ponce Public Library instituted a home loan system guaranteed by deposits. The majority of its readers were school children. By 1946 the Ponce Public Library collection had increased to 9,648 volumes, mostly of general character, but completely catalogued according to the Dewey system. In 1946 the library was mostly supported by the Ponce Lions Club and the Asociacion Bibliotecaria de Puerto Rico, a sort of "friends of the library" organization.

During the administration of mayor Juan H. Cintron (1968), the library moved to new facilities next to Teatro La Perla, where it remained until 2007.

Current facility

The city moved its central library to a new facility in August 2007. The modern facility opened over three years after the untimely death of its proud mastermind and instigator, "the beloved Ponce Mayor Rafael Churumba Cordero".

Main library building

The main library is located in a new building on Miguel Pou Boulevard, barrio San Anton, Ponce, at 18° 0' 44" N, 66° 36' 12" W. The new structure opened in August 2007 under the administration of Mayor Francisco Zayas Seijo and cost $14 million to build. The new building is located at the site of the old Tribunal de Ponce (English: Ponce Judicial Center), which was demolished to give way for the library.

Mariana Suárez de Longo

The Main Library was named after Mariana Suárez de Longo, a much admired “Teacher of Teachers”. Suarez de Longo was born on 3 January 1906 in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, graduated from Ponce High School in 1923, and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Education from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1935. Suarez de Longo then committed almost 40 years of her life to the education of the island’s youth. In 1946, she became the first Puerto Rican woman to be designated School Superintendent, commanding the Ponce area from 1950 to 1962. In 1954 she obtained a Master's degree in Management and Supervision from New York University. From 1963 to 1966 she directed the Department of Education’s southern region, comprising fourteen municipalities. In 1966 she served as director of the Division of Curriculum of Puerto Rico's Department of Education. In 1969, Suarez de Longo directed the Staff Training Center of the Ponce Municipal Head Start program. The devoted educator retired in 1972. She died in Ponce on 13 January 1995.

Satellite libraries

The other seven satellite libraries are distributed throughout the municipality, three within the urban area of the city of Ponce and four outside. The three satellite libraries located in the city proper are at: Clausells (Guillermo Jackson Library), Jaime L. Drew (Jose Rodriguez Ayala), and Playa (Rafaela Prieto Library). The four satellite libraries located outside the urban area of the city are at: Llanos del Sur in barrio Coto Laurel, one at the Old Head Start building in barrio Guaraguao, one at the Corral Viejo sector of barrio Magueyes at the Escuela Segunda Unidad Rosario Latorre, and one at barrio Quebrada Limón. Three of these satellite locations already existed by 1963: Playa de Ponce, Clausells, and Coto Laurel.

Research branch

The Archivo Histórico de Ponce is a library research tool and is currently located on Calle Marina and Plaza Degetau in the Ponce Historic Zone.

Services

The Ponce Municipal Library offers among its services a nearly half-million dollars virtual education center with access to over 30 digital services covering subjects from Auto Repair to Health and Medicine to Literature to encyclopedias and dictionaries with a fleet of some 150 computers. There is a Mi Rincón de Lectura (English: Children’s Reading Corner) providing a setting for parents who want to read to their kids. The two-story main library structure also has a youth library, sponsored by the international children’s literature introductory program known as PIALI, Programa Internacional de Acercamiento a la Literatura Infantil (English: International Children’s Literature Introductory Program).

Also within the main building is the Ponce Historical Archive, with collections of newspapers published in the city from the 18th through the 20th century, including La Gaceta de Puerto Rico, El Aguila de Puerto Rico, El Universal, and El Diario de Puerto Rico among others. Facilities also include an exhibition hall for art expositions and other similar public events of cultural and civic nature. The library’s courtyard provides unrestricted wireless Internet access per the library’s hotspot policy and provides an environment suitable for book presentations, storytelling activities, lectures and cocktails.