Libraries and cooperativism: a dialectical view from the principle of cooperative education in the digital era

Libraries have historically been centers that generate knowledge. Their social function is essential to guarantee fundamental rights such as access to information, culture and education. They play, therefore, a fundamental role in the educational process of society. The cooperative doctrine has recognized a series of principles that support their operation and seek a balance between their two fundamental components: the social and the economic. Among these, the principle of cooperative education, training and information stands out as a golden rule. Although the library and cooperativism may seem dissonant, they are connected by this principle of cooperative education, since from their functions and dialectic conception, both categories contribute to the continuous training of cooperative members and society in general, a relationship that is resized in the current digital context. Such approaches raise questions about the basis of this relationship. Therefore, this material aims to argue the relationship between libraries and cooperativism, under the guiding thread of the principle of cooperative education in digital environments. The research is theoretical, with a descriptive approach, so methods such as dialectical-materialistic, analysis-synthesis and inductive-deductive were used to establish the relationship between libraries and cooperativism, under the guiding thread of the principle of cooperative education.