Memória institucional

a Biblioteca Pública Infantil e Juvenil de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

The Children's and Youth Public Library of Belo Horizonte was inaugurated on February 7, 1991, with the aim of promoting reading encouragement by exploring the creative and critical potential of literature and the arts, fostering a civic perspective and respect for diversity. This article explores the historical conditions that enabled the founding of this library dedicated to children and young people in the capital of Minas Gerais, through an exploratory study with a qualitative approach. To document this institutional memory, a literature review, historiographic analysis, and documentary study of official correspondence and project files from the Public Archives of Belo Horizonte were conducted to retell the library’s history and understand the social phenomenon of its creation. This trajectory highlights the library’s social role in the memory, mediation, and social identity of the city, as it became a space dedicated to reading promotion, research, cultural development, and dissemination aimed at children and youth, while also reaching an adult audience, such as educators and professionals involved in the production for this segment.