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It’s amazing the old or past things one finds still being used today in La Antigua Guatemala. I found this library catalog at the Fundación Cultural Duane Carter Library, simply known as La Biblioteca, located on the second floor of banco G&T at Portal de las Panaderas, on the west side of Parque Central. So many good memories came to me as I pulled the drawers to check out the fichas (index cards) of this library catalog. I knew right there and then that I need to take a picture of it for me, for my memory bank and to share with you. Things do change and disappear all the time in this city that seems to be protected against change and the effects of time passing inside a time capsule; so many things found in the nearly 6-year old AntiguaDailyPhoto blogumentary archives no longer exist today.

Are index card library catalogs still being used where you live?

No, this is not the Stairway to heaven; gosh I am so full of clichés. Honest to god, I am devoid of original thoughts. Everything in my head is a reference or quote to something else. For instance, I see the number 9 and I can only think of Revolution 9 from The Beatles.

One important aspect to highlight about this series about the library is the fact that the guts of the library are contemporary industrial furnishing inside a colonial 16th century building and yet there is harmony between the anachronistic elements.

So it took us about a week to finally enter the Multimedia zone at the Compañí­a de Jesús Library, as Lessie suggested. Now I would be extremely happy if the film section had the complete works of Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and Emir Kusturica for starters. Or better yet, I would be in film-heaven if they only had the 1001 movies you must see before you die. Sometimes I wish I was a Slacker.

We resume the library tour right where we left off last Thursday.

This corridor reading area is a nice place to catch up with the recent events while reading a local newspaper from the newspaper rack available on this same hallway, while drinking a cup of the best coffee in the world and receiving a bath of the morning sunshine. Wow for a few moments you might even forget you are in third-world country.

Children also have a reading and play area at the Compañí­a de Jesús Library. This picture was taken early in the morning, before kids show up and fill the place with their happy noise and laughter.

I was glad to see a reading and play salon for the kids. Reading is a habit that should be acquired at the earliest age possible.

Computer stations are also available at the Compañí­a de Jesús Library in La Antigua Guatemala. Patsy mentioned that many people opt for the computer instead of grabbing the old-time-tested book. Well, the times are a-changing, you know and everyone needs help with a new system. If you don’t believe me, just take a look a the video clip below that show us how difficult it was for the book to get accepted as the new medium for holding texts.

See I am a geek at heart. I carry a Palm Tungsten with over 100 electronic books on it for all those times when I am forced to make the queues; and that happens often in Guatemala. So I carry all kinds of electronic books, many downloaded from the Proyect Gutenberg which I read with Palm Reader or Pluckr on the handy Palm. I have many more books on the computer in PDF and other formats. So I am not foreign to the new technologies. But I love real paperback books, hardcovers, off-white with rough border books. I especially like that no batteries are included for the book to work.

What is your opinion of books, electronic books, e-books, electronic book readers, the new Kindle reading device?

Post cards request update: Today a found several post cards sent by Ann from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Ann was kind enough to send several post cards to compensate for her tardiness, so she says. Ann maintains the very insightful and informative Montego Bay Daily Photo. Just like with books, as much as I take advantage of email, web sites, and blogs, I have a soft spot in may heart for actual really real post cards and letters, so please keep ‘em coming! If you don’t know what I am talking about, please do read the entry Postscript.

From the reception desk, we move to the reading area, immediately to the left, to check out all the recent magazines (mostly European and Spanish). This gray granite table with its bright illumination is the perfect work area to do your Spanish classes homework; even more so if you take into account the great dictionaries and thesaurus available there.

One more aspect which makes this library different from many libraries in Guatemala is the fact that it is self-served and thus you are free to walk around the whole library in search of the magnificent La casa de usted y otros viajes of Jorge Ibargüengoitia or the most recent novel by Javier Marí­as or better yet the most recently published Guatemalan literature book. The choice is yours once you are living your advertures inside this wonder-book-land.

Have I mentioned that the Christmas season just begun? If you feel like being Santa Claus this year, you can send your Christmas present by clicking the Amazon Wish List button below and picking something from the wish list. If you send something and you let me know who you are, I will send some printed 4×6 photos from this site back by regular mail. Whatever you send goes into a special kind of post office box in Miami and from there the package is shipped to Guatemala. I am still responsible for the shipping charges from Miami to Guatemala and the import duties and taxes.