Carlos Victor Penna

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 (Buenos Aires: Acme Agency, 1945), 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.

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, "Scholarship and culture represent a precious source of national wealth. This is why, in every development plan as well as all educational planning, keeping an individual well-informed is an important means of encouraging economic and social development. In order to be educated and cultured, one needs an efficient system of education, which is hardly conceived without a cultivated and systematic habit of reading. Reading presupposes the availability of books and consequently a library is needed. Without libraries, there can be no good primary schools, no efficient secondary schools and no productive universities. In the absence of libraries, it is neither possible to encourage nor to maintain a permanent education for adults…." Penna retired from UNESCO in 1971.