Preserving the Amazon: A digital lifeline for the Biblioteca Amazónica - News

"Three years ago, a fire broke out at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru, imperiling one of the world’s most important collections of primary sources on Amazonian history, culture, and politics.

The fragile collection of maps, photographs, newspapers, and regional journals—an invaluable cache of cultural heritage—was at risk from outdated electrical wiring, humidity, rodents, and nothing more than a shoestring budget.

For Amanda M. Smith, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature, the disaster highlighted the urgency of the project she had already begun: digitizing the archive’s collections to preserve them, at least in electronic format, for the future. 

Working with her co-principal investigator, anthropologist Sydney Silverstein of Wright State University, Smith set out to digitize the archives, collaborating closely with a local team of recent graduates and current students as well as library specialists in Iquitos.

The project began in earnest during the final phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and took three years to complete. It received funding from the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) grant from UCLA, with additional support from the UC Santa Cruz Humanities Division, The Humanities Institute (THI), and the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas.

The result of all this hard work is the first open-access archives at the Biblioteca Amazónica. The archives are now complete and online, including photos and journals and maps."