Carlos Victor Penna
Carlos Victor Penna was an Argentinean library planner and organizer.
Academic career
From New York, Penna returned to Argentina with a collection of books and a wealth of new knowledge which he incorporated into his first publication, Catalogación y clasificación de libros, which marked the beginning of modern librarianship in Argentina. Considered by Argentinians as the leading text, it was used by generations of librarians in schools throughout Latin America. Penna's return to Buenos Aires brought this initial period of his education and career to a close.In 1943, the University of Buenos Aires took an important step toward improving its library system by establishing the Instituto Bibliotecológico, now known as SISBI: Sistema de Bibliotecas y de Información. The institute was the brainchild of Ernesto G. Gietz, the library director of the School of Engineering at the time. The institute received enthusiastic support, not only from the administration, but also from various organizations in the United States that Gietz had visited. In addition to his duties as head of the university's central card catalogue, Penna also assumed the position of assistant director of the then newly created institute.
In 1946, after he founded the Institute Bibliotecologico, Penna moved to the Biblioteca de Marina. Then, in 1947, he assumed the directorship of the National postal library, an institution that focused on the underprivileged. Under Penna's guidance, it became one of the most organized library systems in the nation. Today, it is a branch of the Bibloteca del Congreso de la Nación.
UNESCO career
In 1951, Penna received an offer to join UNESCO as a specialist in its Regional Office for the Western Hemisphere, of which he became director in 1962.In Carlos Victor Penna's words,
Penna retired from UNESCO in 1971.