The Library of The Governor of the Valle del Cauca Diego Garcés Giraldo
The library was created by the governor of the Valle del Cauca Diego Garcés Giraldo who donated the books that were owned by his father, Jorge Garcés Borrero, from whom the library takes its name. The idea of the departmental library emerged from the brothers Garcés Giraldo, who since 1948 did the work selection work, including some high value, donating them to the city. More than 7.500 copies of historical and literary value were donated by the brothers. Initially the library worked at the facilities of the Personal Library of the businessman Jorge Garcés Borrero in the Garcés Building, located on Colombia Avenue with Calle 15.
It was officially inaugurated on June 13, 1954, becoming the second public library of the city after the Centennial Library, the opening ceremony was attended by personality as Monsignor Medina, auxiliary bishop;Armando Romero Lozano, rector of the Santa Librada College, who offered a conference on the educational value of the book;Gilbero Garrido, Notary 2;Fernando Franco Ramírez, and Fernando Caro Molina, who would be the first director of the library.
The first inventory of the institution was carried out under the decimal system. fifteen.000 volumes, 5.200 brochures and 5.600 newspaper collections valued at $ 200.000 of the time, many of which were works of restricted circulation or that had stopped circulating commercially for their small runs were part of this first inventory.
The Departmental Library then moved to a space assigned by the University of the Valle. The collection had to be transferred to the Centennial neighborhood and again to Granada in a building that did not meet the technical conditions for a library of such size and the need for a city in full growth. Given the need to expand the library, and the impossibility of finding an ideal place for its operation, it was decided to demolish the building and build a building with an auditorium of more than 700 chairs, which would be handled together with the universityfrom the valley.
Finally in 1990 the works of the current headquarters on 5th Street with Roosevelt Avenue were completed, with an area of 15.000 m² and with the necessary technology to articulate the public library network. It is located in the center of Santiago de Cali, and forms together with the Federico Carlos Lehmann Museum of Natural Sciences, the Abrakadabra Interactive Museum and the Center for Pedagogical Innovation and Research (CIIP) the Macro-Project Apple of Knowledge. The library was created in 1953 by Decree 12-76 and inaugurated on June 13, 1954.
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