Biblio comes from the ancient Greek word biblion, which refers to either a scroll or small book. In Spanish the word that is often used for library is biblioteca and mochila is a backpack. A bibliomochila, then, is literally a backpack of books, which is very fitting for any historian or librarian. Both are constantly loaded down with books even if they have adapted to other electronic forms in our digital world. In this following page I provide a few photos and reflections on my experiences in research repositories, most of them in the United States and Mexico. Archives and libraries are wonderful places, storehouses of accumulated knowledge and information in various printed and electronic forms. But more than impressive physical structures, archives and libraries are spaces of personal transformation in which we learn about ourselves and the world we inhabit, both past and present.
Jason Dyck 