Purpose -Sets out to discuss the concept of the digital divide and its impact in Latin American libraries. Design/methodology/approach -Provides an overview of the situation in the region. Findings -The digital divide is a global problem that is amplified in the information age, a time in which groups and individuals in society are being denied access to technology. Provides an example by showing how the library of the Universidad de San André s has dealt with this situation. Originality/value -The importance of cooperation among various institutions is highlighted as a way to overcome the barriers to information access.In this paper I will try to give a brief overview of what is called by many the "digital or educational divide" that is affecting so many citizens worldwide. I will then focus on what the professionals at the Max von Buch Library, Universidad de San Andrés, have attempted in an effort to overcome this barrier and to offer the kind of academic services the University's faculty and students needs. DefinitionThe "digital divide" (and I would add information divide) has been defined as the deficiency and the lack of technological access or ownership (computers, software, connection). A gap, which tends to deepen, is produced between those individuals that can access new information and communication tools such as phones, TV or the internet, and those who are too poor to get them. In other words, it is the gap between the haves and the have nots.To fill this gap whether it is for racial, gender, physical, geographic or economic reasons, at the local, national or international level does not just mean providing computers to people who need them. It means that we also train them in the use of computers, and most importantly, and here's where we librarians have a role, it means that we teach them how to access information. Access includes not only knowing where to locate information, but also how to understand it, and how to use it wisely. IFLA indicates that in order to fill the information divide it is necessary to create in libraries and information centers an environment that allows for a free and fair access to information as well as freedom of expression and participation in the knowledge society (Raseroka, 2003). We need to understand that the existing gap in information literacy (the information divide) in the different societies that compose our present world is critical for our age.This is not only a Third World or underdeveloped countries' problem, as many want us to believe. This is a global problem. It is an endemic problem that humanity has been suffering for centuries and is amplified in our "information age", as Castells defines it. It is an information gap between the educated and the uneducated, among different social classes and also globally, between industrialized and less developed countries.

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When German Jews looked for a country to receive them in the late 1930s Ecuador had its doors open for immigration. This paper traces the story of four German Jewish refugees who landed in Ecuador and established bookstores and libraries in a country that knew little of either. Rescuing their lives from oblivion is a way to highlight their cultural contribution to their host country.