Dear friends and benefactors,

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Our collection includes more than 14,000 works, among which we have rare and essential titles for our formation; many of them are the result of donations from our benefactors, especially the French, who have been helping us with the most essential works since our founding. However, our collection is severely threatened.

Excessive humidity (which remains above 80% on almost all days of the year, even on sunny days) combined with the climate, pests, and the proliferation of mold, has long been the enemy of the conservation of our libraries. To make matters worse, our buildings were not constructed with these difficulties in mind, and we have had severe infiltration problems. It has reached the point where water seeps from some walls and flows across the floor during the most challenging rainy days. And the books have been in this environment. The consequences are visible: many books are damaged and have aged prematurely. Even with the care we provide and the intensive use of means to remedy the damage, we have reached an extreme situation where we find ourselves in the emergency of carrying out a general renovation to save our intellectual treasure.

The rescue plan consists of:

1st Step: Make the missing shelves, necessary for air circulation and the conservation of works, and purchase book supports (which prevent books from toppling over).
2nd Step: Transport the most important books to the library less susceptible to humidity. Consequently, relocate all the books.
3rd Step: Purchase the necessary equipment to dehumidify all environments.
4th Step: Reclassify all books and place them in their proper place systematically, with the support of library science methods.
5th Step: Make tables and chairs, purchase the remaining furniture, and the electronic equipment to establish and maintain an up-to-date inventory of all books.

In view of the poor conditions during last year and this year of 2024, especially due to the infiltration in one of the libraries, we were forced to skip the first step and have already started work from the second step, due to the lack of financial resources to acquire the shelves, which are one of the most expensive parts of the project.