Guanajuato, Gto., January 30, 2017.- A place filled with enchantment, wisdom and knowledge distinguished for several collections of ancient and modern books, is the Armando Olivares' Library. Here, readers can find from incunabula (books printed with mobile types since the press until 1500) to scientific and humanities books in different languages such as Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Arab, German, French, Spanish, among others.

The most ancient book the library has is a work of Saint Thomas de Aquino circa 1945 and it is an incunabulum. At the same time, they have manuscripts, handwritten books in Latin that are valuable for the history of knowledge.

The Armando Olivares' Library of the University of Guanajuato represents one of the most valuable treasures of bibliographic archives in our country, at the level of the Burgoa Library in Oaxaca and the Palafoxian Library in Puebla.

One of the differences between the three libraries, is its accessibility, since the enclosure of the University of Guanajuato is open to any person with the curiosity to approach to the magic and wisdom of books. To access the archive, you don't need to be a specialized researcher, just the restlessness that knowledge begins.

This was affirmed by the engineer Francisco González García, promotor of the library, who also spoke about the emblematic place. At first, he said that the origin of the library goes back to 1732 when the history of the University of Guanajuato begins and the Holy Trinity Hospice is founded. At that time, the library remained for 130 years in the first floor of the Central Building, which then became the State College.

Then, they sought a proper place to safeguard the library's books and that is how they adopted a space in what used to be a convent with hospital and a temple. Currently, the Armando Olivares' Library is found in a space that corresponded to the hospital-lounge of that convent.

Francisco González also described the main collection the library has such as the "General Collection" composed by thirty-thousand volumes that practically cover all knowledge areas. The collection "Dr. José María Luis Mora" which was acquired in 1853 by the government of the state of Guanajuato.

"The convent fund" is another collection that includes approximately 3098 works that belonged to the libraries of several convents in the Bajío. Then, the collections "Dr. Alfredo Dugès" which was added to the archive after the death of the scientist and scholar of the State College. It is composed by 369 works on medicine, zoology, botanic and natural science.

To finalize, Francisco González García invited whomever is interested to visit the Armando Olivares Carrillo Library, an exceptional place of sixty-thousand books from the 15th century to early 19th century.

The library offers guided visits, digital reproduction, data bases, specialized advisory, as well as the development of academic and cultural activities. The visiting schedule is from Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 15:30. For more information, you can call +52 (01 473) 732 9049.