Lydia Sambaquy (March 23, 1913 – January 13, 2006) was a Brazilian librarian and a pioneering figure in library science and information science in Brazil. She is best known as the founder and longtime president of the Brazilian Institute of Bibliography and Documentation (IBBD), which is today known as the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT).
Life and Career
Born in Belém, Pará, Brazil, Sambaquy was a cousin of the renowned Brazilian writer Rachel de Queiroz. She graduated in Library Science from the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library of Brazil) at age 25, and later pursued further studies at Columbia University in the United States in 1942.
She married Julio Furquim Sambaquy, who would later serve as a minister of education. Early in her career, she worked at the Public Service Administrative Department (DASP), where she established a foundation course for librarians and implemented the Cataloging Exchange Service (Serviço de Intercâmbio de Catalogação – SIC), which became a powerful mechanism for integrating and training Brazilian libraries.
Founding of IBBD/IBICT
With funding from UNESCO and the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Sambaquy and Jannice Monte-Mor spent a year visiting libraries to study their needs and develop plans. She is credited as the founder of the Brazilian Institute of Bibliography and Documentation (IBBD), and served as its director for eleven years. The institute later became the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), a branch of Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation dedicated to the prospecting and dissemination of scientific information.
International Recognition
Sambaquy was elected president of the International Documentation Federation (FID) for the term 1959–1962, a significant international recognition of her work in documentation and information science.
Later Life and Legacy
Her career was cut short by political circumstances under Brazil's military regime, which led to her departure from the institute. She died of natural causes at her home in Rio de Janeiro on January 13, 2006, at the age of 92.
Lydia Sambaquy is widely regarded as an icon of Brazilian library science. The academic directory of the School of Information Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (ECI/UFMG) bears her name: Diretório Acadêmico Lydia de Queiroz Sambaquy.
