Library of Catalonia

The Library of Catalonia (Catalan: Biblioteca de Catalunya) is an autonomous body attached to the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia. It is the national library with powers in the collection, conservation, preservation and dissemination of heritage, and in bibliographic regulations and cataloguing. It manages the Legal Deposit office in Catalonia and the assignment of the ISSN of periodical publications. It was created in 1907 as "Library of the Institute of Catalan Studies" and opened to the public in 1914, at the time of the Commonwealth of Catalonia, with headquarters in the palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Its first director was Jordi Rubió.

In 2000, the city council gave up the buildings of the old Hospital de la Santa Cruz in Barcelona, a complex from the 15th century , as the headquarters of the library. Currently, the Library occupies a total area of 8,820 m², and has a collection of approximately three million items. Its main headquarters is the old Hospital, but it has another building in the city of Barcelona (with some technical services and warehouses) and a warehouse in Hospitalet de Llobregat.

History

In 1914, the Commonwealth of Catalonia granted the library the status of public cultural service. In 1917, the Printed Reserve and Special Collections and Music sections were created, which favor the incorporation and cataloging of important heritage pieces and collections. In 1923, the Prints, Engravings and Maps section was established, which brought together graphic material. In 1931, Barcelona City Council approved the transfer of the old Hospital de la Santa Cruz de Barcelona as the headquarters of the Library.

After the Civil War ended, in 1940, the institution, now baptized by the Franco regime as the Central Library, moved to the headquarters given by the city council in 1931, where it is still located. In 1981 the Library of Catalonia became the Library of Catalonia, according to the Library Law approved by the Catalan parliament, and assumed the reception, conservation and dissemination of the Legal Deposit of Catalonia. In 1998, the Library renovated the Gothic naves of its headquarters and expanded its spaces, thanks to the construction of the new services building. Recently (2000), it has begun the digitization of its collections and has led the PADICAT project since 2005.