| Popis: |
This paper explains how the savings bank «Caixa d’Estalvis de Mataró» (Catalonia), later «Caixa d’Estalvis Laietana», founded a public library in 1929, which over time became the most important cultural institution in the city and, in terms of the amount of its holdings, the best-equipped public library in Catalonia and Spain. In 2012 the «Caixa d’Estalvis» was transformed into the Iluro Foundation. The trustees of the new foundation, finding themselves unable to manage the library, began talks with the City Council in order to transfer it to them, taking advantage that the City Council was legally obliged to open a new one. The City Council did not accept it because it preferred to open a much smaller one ¬¬― a «local library of proximity». The Iluro Foundation, unable to relocate its library, dismantled it to coincide with the opening of the new one by the City Council. The special library collection, including the local collection, have been retained by the foundation, which has no open library, and the very rich general holdings have been abandoned. This is the culmination of a cultural absurdity caused by the ineptitude or incapacity of a foundation and the lack of interest of a City Council. A case worthy of being studied. |
