The National Library Does Not Have Elements to Protect the Cultural Heritage
<p style="text-align:justify">The SIGEN said this after observing that the institution lacked a plan to control the factors that can degrade the archived materials and that it is necessary to improve the technical conditions of the area of restoration and conservation. In addition, some employees reported poor working conditions, and there is no security system against theft.</p>
In the National Library there is no plan to control factors that can degrade the materials that are archived, and the Preservation, Conservation and Restoration Division lacks the environmental conditions and the technical resources necessary to carry out its function. Based on these observations, the General Office of the Nation (SIGEN, for its acronym in Spanish), concluded that the entity "lacks essential elements and materials essential for the protection of cultural heritage."
According to the inspection body's report, approved in 2008, the Library also has no action program to incorporate old books, magazines and brochures into its patrimony, and the loading circuit of inventoried material is "slow." Also detected were "deficiencies in the informal circuit of entry and exit of material by donation."
On the other hand, "some agents" who work in the headquarters of Las Heras Avenue denounced the bad working conditions in which they must render service. The SIGEN adds that these complaints are "backed by inspection reports of the Superintendence of Occupational Risks."
The SIGEN also detected the "lack of an integral and integrated system of security against fire, theft, flood or intentional damage."
"The system of internal control of the institution is weak," says SIGEN's work and adds that "although the authorities (of the Library) have taken steps to regularize" the shortcomings found in previous research, "persist in the Time the pending observations, especially on the substantive areas, (such as) information systems and heritage, administration and asset protection. All this, completes the Syndicate, evidences the possibility of occurring "deviations or errors" that put at risk "the cultural heritage of the country."