History of Bibliotecas

Bibliotecas is an academic journal and as such its main objective is the dissemination of knowledge resulting from research and extension, which contributes to the development of the discipline.

From 1980 to 2008, the EBDI had a biannual publication called Bibliotecas: Boletín de la Escuela de Bibliotecología, Documentación e Información (Libraries: Bulletin of the School of Librarianship, Documentation and Information). The publication of the bulletin had several limitations, including staff availability, time allocation, funding and material resources, among others. From the beginning, the bulletin was an activity undertaken by the School's management or by an academic as an unpaid extra charge in his or her working day. 

In 2010, as part of the actions contemplated in its formulation as a project, an evaluation was carried out by three external peers and the users of this journal, in order to determine aspects related to its quality and editorial management, as well as its quality of content, among others. Some of the results obtained from this process are summarized below:

- The relevance of having an editor, an Editorial Committee, a Bank of Evaluators and a Support Committee.
- According to the users of the journal, some aspects that deserve a positive evaluation are the following: the seriousness and validity granted by the participation of a national editorial committee and an international advisory board; the quality granted by the presence of international authors; the methodological approach of the articles published; the thematic content; the fact that the articles present summaries and keywords in two languages; the information provided on the authors, as well as the age and permanence of this publication.
- Other important aspects that came to light in this evaluation refer to the pertinence, originality, timeliness and relevance of the articles.
- Most of the opinions of the external peers agreed that the original evaluation format is appropriate and that the articles selected and published comply with the disciplinary thematic orientation.
- Regarding the procedures for selection and evaluation of originals by an Editorial Committee and external peers, most opinions agreed that they are optimal because they achieve consistency in the quality of editorial management.
- Regarding the attractiveness, more than 50% of the works published in the journal, in the last five years, correspond to original articles.

Between 2012 and 2016, in its first phase as a research project, Bibliotecas was able to consolidate thanks to the experience of the EBDI and the teachers in charge of it. The journal became a publication space for diverse research carried out by the School's academics, for the dissemination of undergraduate graduation final papers and various reflections. On the other hand, there was a process of incorporation of multiple works by professionals from outside the UNA and the country, which added growth experiences and made the journal known in different contexts.
From 2017 to 2021, in its second phase, more current processes were established in editorial management, such as: continuous publication (reception of works throughout the year and publication of these once they satisfactorily comply with the processes), management of social networks (Facebook and Twitter), layout in HTML optimized for multiplatform reading (auto-adjustment for PC, tablets and mobiles) and the construction of manuals and editorial policies under constant review. Efforts were also made to ensure that Libraries had a presence in international activities (Third National Congress and First Ibero-American Congress of Scientific Journals, UNAM, Mexico (2018) and XII Meeting of Editors of Scientific and Dissemination Journals, Cuba (2019)).

For the third phase between 2022 and 2026, the journal intends to continue facing new challenges and opportunities for continuous growth, taking advantage of the inputs and experiences of various national and international scenarios in terms of editorial management, quality standards, Open Science, among others.