“La Cultuteca” Initiative corresponds to a directory that brings together links to different institutional sites of the Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCJ), where you can access publications, research, video documentaries, regional recipes, and tourist guides, among other content.
The 2023 school year began several weeks ago, which is why the Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCJ) makes available to primary, secondary and university students, as well as researchers, this new content platform as a directory for consulting content related to the institutional work of the MCJ.
It is a subsite, located on the website of the Ministry of Culture and Youth, where the public can access various kinds of publications, research, video documentaries, thematic surveys, regional recipes, tourist guides, among other valuable content, generated through processes executed from the MCJ, from its different affiliated institutions.
An inter-institutional effort
Vera Beatriz Vargas, Vice Minister of Culture, indicated that “this inter-institutional effort allows us to gather in a single point, a series of didactic contents, prepared by the Ministry of Culture and Youth; very valuable materials for the use of students of all educational levels, researchers, as well as the general public who wish to expand their knowledge of art, culture, cultural heritage, history, Costa Rican audiovisuals and much more. We invite teachers to consult the tool and urge their students to make use of this valuable resource”.
What can be found in “La Cultuteca?
Among some of the main materials available in “La Cultuteca”, there is access to the Image Archive of the Film Center, where you can see, free of charge, documentaries made by the Film Department of the Ministry of Culture and Youth ( 1973-1989). In addition, materials produced by the pioneers of Costa Rican documentary film, in the series: “New Man”, “Ours”, “Human Promotion”, “National History”, “Geography”, “Dance”, “Theater”, among others.
The Cultural Information System (Sicultura), makes available in “La Cultuteca” its Cultural Directory, a catalog with files that review the information on cultural resources throughout the country, such as cultural managers, groups, organizations and cultural companies, physical spaces for cultural uses and elements of tangible and intangible heritage. In addition, you can also access the Sicultura digital library, which has all the publications made by the MCJ Culture and Economy Unit, with access to documents such as the National Culture Survey, the Culture Satellite Account, Cultural Inventories, among other documents.
Research on Youth
In the area of Youth, from the Council for the Young Person the Magazine “Research on Youth” was included, a tool that contributes to the generation of research on this topic, as well as the dissemination of knowledge and reflection on the situation of young people, their identities, human rights and public policies that concern them. In addition, you can access research, studies and diagnoses on youth, censuses, statistics, cantonal surveys, as well as the National Youth Surveys.
The Benemérita Biblioteca Nacional de Costa Rica offers digitized documents from its heritage collections, such as books, newspapers, magazines, audios, photographs, cartoons, music. Virtual exhibitions on different themes and that have been held at the National Library are also included.
The Directorate of Sociocultural Management offers the contents that they generate through its fund Becas Taller, aimed at safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of the country. This reservoir contains the description of a large part of the more than 200 projects awarded grants to individuals and organizations, from 2016 to 2022. In some cases it is possible to find final products, such as documents, publications, and videos.
And much more…
In “La Cultuteca” you can also access the Digital Library of the MCJ website, where the institution’s publications are compiled, focused mainly on the country’s gastronomy, and produced by different instances of the MCJ, such as the Heritage Center; In addition, it has a link to audiovisual productions related to this theme, made from the MCJ Communication Unit. Finally, from this site you can also access the Tourist-Cultural Guides developed jointly between the Costa Rican Tourism Institute and the MCJ.
The list of contents available in “La Cultuteca” is quite extensive, it includes a catalog from the Museum of Costa Rican Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, materials of various kinds offered by the National Archive of Costa Rica, the National Museum of Costa Rica, and an endless number of other materials, for which the public is invited to navigate through “La Cultuteca” and access the content that interests the most.They expose “Obituaries of Memory” about the fight for the freedom of women in Nicoya.
You can access the site at: www.mcj.go.cr/LaCultuteca
