Brasiliana Mindlin Library opens with exhibition

The building on the Universidade de São Paulo campus houses a collection of more than 32,000 titles by Brazilian authors or about Brazil, assembled by Guita and José Mindlin.

By Frances Jones

Agência FAPESP – A new chapter in the history of the library has begun with the public opening of a building that houses more than 32,000 titles from the Brasiliana collection, assembled by Guita and José Mindlin and donated in 2006 by the bibliophile and businessman to the Universidade de São Paulo (USP).

Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita and José Mindlin Library, inaugurated in March, is a modern, 20,000-square-meter building in the center of Universidade de São Paulo’s campus in São Paulo. It was projected by Eduardo de Almeida and Rodrigo Mindlin Loeb (the couple’s grandson) with the assistance of USP’s Architecture and Urbanism School (FAU-USP).

The public can view the permanent exhibition, “I do nothing without happiness” (the library’s ex libris motto), with panels including images, texts and videos on the life of the couple, the formation of the library, the construction of the building, culture, the materiality and conservation of books, the history of the press and the pleasure of reading.

“The long-term exhibition was planned along with the architecture of the building. There are, for example, images of Mindlin reading bits of poems or of the Grande Sertão Veredas,” comments Pedro Puntoni, director of the library and coordinator of the USP Brasiliana Project.

A second short-term exhibition, slated to open on June 28, will present the Biblioteca Mindlin Library’s 100 most valuable, important and significant books and documents, protected in glass and metal cases.

Original works by German author Hans Staden (1525-1579), French painter Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848), Portuguese businessman Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1540-1591) and Brazilian writers João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967) and Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953) will be part of this show, which includes 12 iPads so that visitors can virtually flip through the books on exhibit, which are also available digitally on the library’s web site.

Part of the library – approximately 3,500 titles – is available for download on the institution’s site, which is a connected to USP’s President’s Office and USP Extension Services.

“We have more digital titles, but we are putting them on [the site] little by little because the greatest task is not digitalization but, rather, the metadata, cataloguing and preparation,” explained Puntoni, professor at USP’s School of Philosophy, Languages and Humanities.

The digitalization project for the Brasiliana Mindlin Library, considered the most important collection of its type by an individual, began with FAPESP funding. According to the director, this funding was important for creation of the digitalization laboratory and creation of the site. “The study sponsored by FAPESP also resulted in the definition of a platform for digitalization of rare books and documents of memorial archives,” Puntoni said.

Several other cultural institutions, such as Biblioteca Mário de Andrade Library, Moreira Salles Institute, National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) and the São Paulo State Public Archive, are using or planning to use the product developed with FAPESP funding, the Corisco Platform, which includes software, a policy and a set of rules and procedures.

According to Puntoni, the Brasiliana digital project obtained funding from Petrobras and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). “FAPESP’s funding allowed us to move forward with the project and consolidate it, and the BNDES came and solidified the continuity of it,” he affirmed. The project is being organized in a research center coordinated by Puntoni and Professor Edson Gomi of the USP Polytechnic’s School of Computer Engineering.

As the digitalization continues with more and larger equipment, the public could download, for example, the complete works of authors such as Joaquim Nabuco, Joaquim Manoel de Macedo, José de Alencar and Casimiro de Abreu.

Open for research

Researchers can obtain access to the physical books by appointment. The library currently has 16 employees, but that number will increase to 33. It also has collaborators, such as fellows, professors, undergraduate and graduate students and interns.

Researchers are “old acquaintances” of Brasiliana Mindlin, having used the library since it was still Guita and José Mindlin’s home in the Brooklin neighborhood of São Paulo. Puntoni himself began visiting there as a researcher at the beginning of the 1990s, when he was completing his master’s degree on African slavery in Dutch Brazil and the traffic wars in the South Atlantic.

Scholars from the areas of the history of science, the history of books and reading, the history of Brazil and the humanities should have a special interest in investigating the archive, which was developed over more than 80 years.

The library already houses several research groups and an outstanding study center in the area of digital humanities for those interested in exploring the production, organization and diffusion of information in the digital world (the site of the group, which is coordinated by Maria Clara Paixão de Souza, is available at http://humanidadesdigitais.org).

It is notable that the collection has not stopped growing since José Mindlin’s death in 2010. Although the donation document signed by Mindlin states that there are 17,000 titles, in the process of including them on USP’s cataloguing system, the Dedalus system, workers discovered that the collection included at least 32,000 titles, corresponding to 60,000 volumes.

“Many of them had not been catalogued by José and by the people who helped him. We made a complementary list of 15,000 more titles. Furthermore, the donations have not stopped, and the library was authorized to have a budget for new acquisitions.

“This shows an important aspect, which is the extent to which the library is alive; it was not conceived as a memorial. It is not a dead library, frozen in time. It is not just José Mindlin’s collection. It is the library that he created that continues to live, that will continue receiving donations, above all from bibliophiles, of rare and important books.”

Library of rare works

In addition to the block that has been opened, the Brasiliana building includes another part that is still under construction. This second block, slated to be ready in June or July, will house the Institute of Brazilian Studies (IEB) and the technical department of the USP’s Integrated System of Libraries (SIBi). The SIBi is responsible for managing the 70 university libraries and the Library of Rare Works, which is currently being created.

“The Library of Rare Works was conceived as a service for all USP libraries,” Puntoni said. “Not all have the right conditions for the storage, conservation and security of these works.”

This will allow schools that so desire to have their rarest library works stored appropriately and digitalized. “Anyone who wants to bring them here will have permanent storage with security cameras, air conditioning and trained professionals,” Puntoni stated.

The digitalization of the titles of this library has also begun. According to the director, almost 2,500 titles of USP’s rare works have been digitalized. “When we launch the physical library, we will already have a policy and a digital library.”

The idea is to sponsor events, such as seminars and conferences, in the 300-seat auditorium of the building, which was inaugurated last month. The auditorium is called István Jancsó, in honor of the first director of the Mindlin Library, who died in March 2010 and who conceived the entire Brasiliana Project.

In addition to the auditorium, the Mindlin Library and two exhibition halls, the new wing that will be inaugurated will have a third exhibition hall, an Edusp (USP publishing house) bookstore and a café.

More information on the rules for research appointments and operating hours is available at www.brasiliana.usp.br/en.