26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 30,000 manuscripts, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 510,000 music scores, etc.
Access to reproductions and post-1958 materials is open to Biblioteca Nacional library card holders. Access to pre-1958 materials is only allowed with a researcher card.[1] Materials in exceptional circumstances are subject to special restrictions.[2]
Members
115,707 readers in 2007. The web users in the same year were 1,800,935.
The library was founded by KingPhilip V in 1711 as the Royal Library or Palace Public Library. The Royal Letters Patent that he granted, the predecessor of the current legal deposit requirement, made it mandatory for printers to submit a copy of every book printed in Spain to the library. In 1836, theCrown transferred the library to theMinistry of Governance and it was renamed as National Library. A year later, women were allowed access to the library for the first time, after a petition from writerAntonia Gutiérrez was granted by Queen RegentMaria Christina.[3]
During the 19th century, confiscations, purchases and donations enabled the National Library to acquire the majority of the antique and valuable books that it currently holds. In 1892, the building was used to host theHistorical American Exposition. On 16 March 1896, the National Library opened to the public in the same building in which it is currently housed and included a vast Reading Room on the main floor designed to hold 320 readers. In 1931, the Reading Room was reorganised, providing it with a major collection of reference works, and the General Reading Room was created to cater for students, workers and general readers.
During theSpanish Civil War close to 500,000 volumes were collected by a Confiscation Committee and stored in the National Library to safeguard works of art and books held until then in religious establishments, palaces and private houses. During the 20th century numerous modifications were made to the building to adapt its rooms and repositories to its constantly expanding collections, to the growing volume of material received following the modification to theLegal Deposit requirement in 1958,[4][5] and to the numerous works purchased by the library. Among this building work, some of the most noteworthy changes were the alterations made in 1955 to triple the capacity of the library's repositories, and those started in 1986 and completed in 2000, which led to the creation of the new building inAlcalá de Henares and complete remodelling of the building onPaseo de Recoletos, Madrid.[4]
In 1986, when Spain's main bibliographic institutions – the National Newspaper Library (Hemeroteca Nacional), the Hispanic Bibliographic Institute (Instituto Bibliográfico Hispánico) and the Centre for Documentary and Bibliographic Treasures (Centro del Tesoro Documental y Bibliográfico) – were incorporated into the National Library, the library was established as the State Repository of Spain's Cultural Memory (Centro Estatal Depositario de la Memoria Cultural Española), making all of Spain's bibliographic output on any media available to the Spanish Library System and national and international researchers and cultural and educational institutions. In 1990 it was made anautonomous agency attached to theMinistry of Culture.
The National Library is Spain's highest library institution and is head of the Spanish Library System.
As the country's national library, it is the centre responsible for identifying, preserving, conserving, and disseminating information about Spain's documentary heritage, and it aspires to be an essential point of reference for research into Spanish culture. In accordance with its Articles of Association, passed by Royal Decree 1581/1991 (R.D. 1581/1991) of 31 October 1991, its principal functions are to:
Compile, catalogue, and conserve bibliographic archives produced in any language of the Spanish state, or any other language, for the purposes of research, culture, and information.
Promote research through the study, loan, and reproduction of its bibliographic archive.
Disseminate information on Spain's bibliographic output based on the entries received through the legal deposit requirement.
The library's collection consists of more than 26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 600,000 sound recordings, 510,000 music scores, more than 500,000 microforms, 500,000 maps, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 90,000 audiovisuals, 90,000 electronic documents, and 30,000 manuscripts.
The current director of the National Library is Ana Santos Aramburo, appointed in 2013. Former directors include her predecessorsGlòria Pérez-Salmerón (2010–2013) andMilagros del Corral (2007–2010) as well as historianJuan Pablo Fusi (1996–2000) and authorRosa Regàs (2004–2007).
Given its role as thelegal deposit for the whole of Spain, since 1991 it has kept most of the overflowing collection at a secondary site inAlcalá de Henares, nearMadrid.
The National Library provides access to its collections through the following library services:
Guidance and general information on the institution and other libraries.
Bibliographic information about its collection and those held by other libraries or library systems.
Access to its automated catalogue, which currently contains close to 3,000,000 bibliographic records encompassing all of its collections.
Archive consultation in the library's reading rooms.
Interlibrary loans.
Archive reproduction.
Stairs and main entrance with monuments to San Isidoro, Alonso Berruguete, Alfonso X el Sabio by José Alcoverro
^Constenla, Tereixa (10 March 2013)."Leer era cosa de hombres" [Reading Was a Man's Thing].El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Archived fromthe original on 11 March 2013. Retrieved25 September 2023.
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