Olinta Ariosa Morales

Olinta Ariosa Morales (1921 – 1999) was a librarian from Cuba. She played an important role in the development of the public library and school library systems in her country after the Cuban revolution, in which she was jailed for her participation. Throughout her career she was an activist and advocate for multiple causes. She played a key role in the formation of the Cuban Association of Librarians.

Early life Olinta Ariosa Morales was born in 1921 in Zulueta, Remedios (now Villa Clara Province), Cuba to a family of sugar-workers.

She created new administrative, scientific, and technological policies that had a lasting impact on students in the professional field of Library Science. Olinta went on to teach classes in librarianship at her alma mater, the University of Havana, until 1965. she decided to implement a system-wide approach to help improve Cuba's libraries through scientific methodology, reforming administrative structures, processing efforts, and library services. The emphasis on the use of "mini-libraries" helped to create greater access for the people. She also served as the director of the José Martí National Library from 1976 to 1977. During this time she established a strong international professional network to exchange ideas and personnel with other libraries.

Later life In the 1980s Olinta devoted herself to establishing and promoting the Cuban Association of Librarians to which she became the first president. She organized and oversaw the first delegation of Cuban librarians to an IFLA conference in 1980, hosted by the Philippines in Manila. She died in 1999.

Awards In her life she was awarded the Bachiller & Morales Medal by the Cuban Association of Librarians, the Cuban Culture Award by the Ministry of Culture, and the Order of Alejo Carpentier in 1983.

Since 2005, the Cuban Association of Librarians has given a national award named in her honor recognizing librarians with an outstanding contribution to school libraries.