Preserving the Amazon: A digital lifeline for the Biblioteca Amazónica

Three years ago, a fire broke out at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru, imperiling one of the world’s most important collections of primary sources on Amazonian history, culture, and politics. For Amanda M. Smith, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature, the disaster highlighted the urgency of the project she had already begun: digitizing the archive’s collections to preserve them, at least in electronic format, for the future.

By Dan White

Three years ago, a fire broke out at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru, imperiling one of the world’s most important collections of primary sources on Amazonian history, culture, and politics.

The fragile collection of maps, photographs, newspapers, and regional journals—an invaluable cache of cultural heritage—was at risk from outdated electrical wiring, humidity, rodents, and nothing more than a shoestring budget.

For Amanda M. Smith, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature, the disaster highlighted the urgency of the project she had already begun: digitizing the archive’s collections to preserve them, at least in electronic format, for the future. 

Working with her co-principal investigator, anthropologist Sydney Silverstein of Wright State University, Smith set out to digitize the archives, collaborating closely with a local team of recent graduates and current students as well as library specialists in Iquitos.

The project began in earnest during the final phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and took three years to complete. It received funding from the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) grant from UCLA, with additional support from the UC Santa Cruz Humanities Division, The Humanities Institute (THI), and the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas.

The result of all this hard work is the first open-access archives at the Biblioteca Amazónica. The archives are now complete and online, including photos and journals and maps. 

“We hope researchers, educators, and students will make use of these amazing resources,” Smith said. 

Beyond the technical challenges of digitization, Smith and Silverstein were acutely aware of the ethical and political complications of their work.  

Smith reflected on these issues in her article, “Extractivism and the ecology of research infrastructure: digitizing precarious materialities in Iquitos, Peru,” published in Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology, and Society. 

The term extractivism refers to the large-scale extraction of raw materials, such as minerals or oil, for export and processing elsewhere. 

However, it can also describe research practices in which knowledge or intellectual property is taken from a local community—often with little or no benefit returned. In recent years, there has been growing criticism, both within and beyond academia, of research that takes more from communities than it gives back. 

In response, many scholars are now working to make their projects more participatory and collaborative with the communities involved.

Implementing ethical collaboration processes

“The question of digital extractivism is tricky and ongoing with this project,” Smith said. 

For instance, Smith noted that the project funding comes from institutions in the Global North, including UCLA for the project’s first grant and the British Library for the second grant, which is currently underway. 

While she and her team built an open-access online repository of resources, preserving precious cultural heritage digitally, neither grant allows for supplies that would help preserve the physical archives stores in Iquitos, Smith said. 

In light of such complications, the Arcadia Fund behind both grants has determined that the most ethical way to proceed is to maximize local participation at all of their funding sites. For this reason, they stipulate that the digitization work must be completed by a local team, that all funding be used locally, and that local communities get to keep all the digitizing equipment. 

Smith and Silverstein trained their local collaborators intensively in digitization, digital equipment, editing software, and metadata generation. This group thrived in spite of many daunting complications.  

“When we first got to Iquitos, half of our equipment had been lost in transit, so we lost valuable time waiting to assemble equipment, when we could have been training,” Smith said. 

Then, the fire happened, further delaying their work. Equipment failed constantly. The weather did not help, either.

 “Iquitos is hot and humid, and the library is not climatized,” Smith said. “We had moisture in camera lenses, hard disks that failed, and computers that overheated and had to be replaced.”

But after a while, the team, which was trained to do the work without the need for Smith and Silverstein being there with them, acquired knowledge that surpassed that of their mentors. 

“They began taking ownership over the project, problem-solving on their own, identifying local resources, networking with professionals locally and in Lima, and guiding Sydney and me in our management of the team,” Smith said. 

In fact, this team took so much pride in its work that its members registered as an official cultural heritage group called “Isula Digital” (Digital Bullet Ant) with the Department of Loreto’s Ministry of Culture. 

“I am excited to see the ways this project may influence their future professional lives,” Smith said. “As they would be the first to say, we became a family together, so even when the project officially ends, the commitment that Sydney and I have made to them will not.”

Original Link: https://news.ucsc.edu/2025/10/preserving-the-amazon-a-digital-lifeline-for-the-biblioteca-amazonica/