National Library of Colombia
Encyclopedia
The National Library of Colombia is the national library
of Colombia
. The library is a dependancy of the Colombian Ministry of Culture
.
in the Americas
. It was founded at the end of the eighteenth century in 1777 by Viceroy
Manuel De Guirior, who established the library in the city of Bogotá
. The original collection of the library consisted of books expropriated
from the Jesuit community, which had been expelled from all the dominions of the Spanish Empire
, as a result of the 1767 order of King Charles III
of Spain
. In 1825, due to the work of Francisco de Paula Santander
, the library was established at the campus of the Colegio de San Bartolomé and received its current name. On March 25, 1834, the first legal deposit
law
was decreed, which required that all copies of printed material in the country be sent to the library for storage. This law set the objective of the library, which then became the sole entity in charge of maintaining the bibliographic heritage of the nation
.
Bibliographic wealth of Colombia (incunabular, prints, sound recordings and audio-visual work of great historical and artistic value), located in the southeast corner of Independence Park. Founded January 9, 1777, inaugurated in 1938 and remodeled in 1978 by architect Jacques Mosseri, except decorative elements and façade design remained the same.
The two statues on both sides of calle 25 access, high relief at the attic, sign materials mixture and windows ornamentation were abolished. Four story building. In the first floor general reading rooms, kardex, exhibitions, music, classification, among other. In the second floor hemerotheca and researchers, in the third and fourth floors book storage and administrative offices.
Provides legal publications storage, official publications trade, guided visits, user card, photogram reproduction, works and photographs photocopying, and photograph or film works. As part of valuable donations received, Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez, Miguel Antonio Caro
, Rufino José Cuervo
, Eduardo Santos and Germán Arciniegas are the most important.
In addition, according to a history of the library, the library also functions as a training center for librarians in Colombia as well as a source of books for other countries' libraries.
of the Senate of Colombia
, the library's stated functions are:
of publications. The collection contains 47 incunabula, 610 volumes of manuscript
s and other publications of "rare and curious" books, particularly purchased from or donated by personalities from the political and social life of Colombia, including the collections of Eduardo Santos
, German Arciniegas
, Jorge Isaacs
, Manuel Ancízar
, Marco Fidel Suárez
, Miguel Antonio Caro
, and Rufino José Cuervo
among others. The library also possesses publications of the United Nations
Library, and pictorial works of historical value like the watercolors of the Chorography
Commission. A large quantity of audio recordings comes from the legal deposit law, which has also allowed the library to possess a general collection of the majority of the publications made in the country since the year 1830 as well as a newspaper library with publications of priceless value, like the Aviso de Terremoto, considered the premiere periodical publication
in the Republic of Colombia.
The total collection of the Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia exceeds 2,000,000 volumes. Of this, approximately 25% was acquired through the beforementioned legal deposit laws. The other books have mostly come from donations.
National library
A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books...
of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. The library is a dependancy of the Colombian Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Culture (Colombia)
The Ministry of Culture is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia charged with preserving, promoting, and encouraging the growth, free expression and understanding of the Culture of Colombia in all its multi-ethnic forms.-Ministers:...
.
Founding and history
The National Library of Colombia is generally considered to be the oldest national libraryLibrary
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. It was founded at the end of the eighteenth century in 1777 by Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
Manuel De Guirior, who established the library in the city of Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
. The original collection of the library consisted of books expropriated
Confiscation
Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority...
from the Jesuit community, which had been expelled from all the dominions of the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
, as a result of the 1767 order of King Charles III
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. In 1825, due to the work of Francisco de Paula Santander
Francisco de Paula Santander
Francisco José de Paula Santander y Omaña , was a Colombian military and political leader during the 1810–1819 independence war of the United Provinces of New Granada...
, the library was established at the campus of the Colegio de San Bartolomé and received its current name. On March 25, 1834, the first legal deposit
Legal deposit
Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The requirement is mostly limited to books and periodicals. The number of copies varies and can range from one to 19 . Typically, the national library is one of the...
law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
was decreed, which required that all copies of printed material in the country be sent to the library for storage. This law set the objective of the library, which then became the sole entity in charge of maintaining the bibliographic heritage of the nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
.
Bibliographic wealth of Colombia (incunabular, prints, sound recordings and audio-visual work of great historical and artistic value), located in the southeast corner of Independence Park. Founded January 9, 1777, inaugurated in 1938 and remodeled in 1978 by architect Jacques Mosseri, except decorative elements and façade design remained the same.
The two statues on both sides of calle 25 access, high relief at the attic, sign materials mixture and windows ornamentation were abolished. Four story building. In the first floor general reading rooms, kardex, exhibitions, music, classification, among other. In the second floor hemerotheca and researchers, in the third and fourth floors book storage and administrative offices.
Provides legal publications storage, official publications trade, guided visits, user card, photogram reproduction, works and photographs photocopying, and photograph or film works. As part of valuable donations received, Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez, Miguel Antonio Caro
Miguel Antonio Caro
Miguel Antonio Caro Tobar was a Colombian scholar, poet, journalist, philosopher, orator, philologist, lawyer and politician.- Biographic data :Miguel Antonio Caro was born in Bogotá on November 10, 1845, and he died in the same city on August 5, 1909....
, Rufino José Cuervo
Rufino José Cuervo
Rufino José Cuervo Urisarri , was a Colombian writer, linguist and philologist.He studied Latin and Greek, but the main part of his work was dedicated to the study of the dialectal variations of Spanish spoken in Colombia...
, Eduardo Santos and Germán Arciniegas are the most important.
Mission
The library's mission is:Garantizar la recuperación, preservación y acceso a la memoria colectiva del país, representada por el patrimonio bibliográfico y hemerográfico en cualquier soporte físico; así como la promoción y fomento de las bibliotecas públicas, la planeación y diseño de políticas relacionadas con la lectura, y la satisfacción de necesidades de información indispensables para el desarrollo individual y colectivo de los colombianos...
To guarantee the recovery of, preservation of, and access to the collective memory of the country, represented by the bibliographic and periodical heritage and in any form; so as to promote and foment public librariesPublic libraryA public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
, the planning and design of policies related to reading, and the satisfaction of the indispensable need for information for the individual and collective development of Colombians...
In addition, according to a history of the library, the library also functions as a training center for librarians in Colombia as well as a source of books for other countries' libraries.
Functions
According to a decreeDecree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
of the Senate of Colombia
Senate of Colombia
The Senate of the Republic of Colombia is the upper house of the Congress of Colombia, with the lower house being the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia...
, the library's stated functions are:
- To advise the Ministry of Culture as it concerns the formulation of policies on the bibliographic and periodical national heritage
- To guide the plans and programs about creation, promotion, and strengthening of public libraries and the complementary services that are rendered by them
- To direct and coordinate the national network of public libraries.
- To collect, organize, increase, conserve, preserve, protect, record, and spread the bibliographic and periodical heritage of the nation, sustained in different mediums of information.
- To plan and design policies related to reading and its contribution to the development of the education and intellect of the Colombian people
- To design, organize, and develop the bibliographic heritage to contribute to the strengthening of the national identity
- To establish and maintain relations with national and international organizations, with the goal of promoting and developing programs of popular culture and cultural exchange together, in the themes related to books and reading
- To provide advice to, and collaboration with, different scientific, cultural, and educational organizations that develop programs of investigation and cultural diffusion
Law of legal deposit
The law of legal deposit is regulated by Law 44 of 1993, the statutory Decree No. 460 of March 16, 1999, and the Decree 2150 of 1995. These laws and decrees are specifically about the National Library of Colombia. The creators of printed works, as well as audiovisual, audio, and video productions, should supply the library with a specified number of copies of the works, whether they were produced within the Colombian territory or imported.- For printed works, two copies of each of the works produced within the national territory should be delivered to the National Library of Colombia; one copy to the Biblioteca del Congreso de la República de Colombia (Library of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia), and one copy to the Central Library of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia), excepting a few cases in which the high cost of the edition or the short duration of publication makes it possible to deliver fewer copies.
- For audiovisual and audio works, as well as for published works that have been imported, only one copy needs to be delivered to the National Library.
Catalog
Due to the legal deposit law and many charitable donations, the National Library has a large catalogLibrary catalog
A library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...
of publications. The collection contains 47 incunabula, 610 volumes of manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s and other publications of "rare and curious" books, particularly purchased from or donated by personalities from the political and social life of Colombia, including the collections of Eduardo Santos
Eduardo Santos
Eduardo Santos Montejo was a leading Colombian publisher and politician, active in the Colombian Liberal Party. He owned the prominent Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo, and served as the President of Colombia from August 1938 to August 1942.Santos was close friends with the Venezuelan Ambassador in...
, German Arciniegas
Germán Arciniegas
Germán Arciniegas was a Colombian essayist and historian. Arciniegas wrote over 50 books and many columns in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and also taught at Columbia University in New York.- Books :...
, Jorge Isaacs
Jorge Isaacs
Jorge Isaacs Ferrer was a Colombian writer, politician and soldier. His only novel, María, became one of the most notable works of the Romantic movement in Spanish literature....
, Manuel Ancízar
Manuel Ancízar
Manuel Esteban Ancízar Basterra was a Colombian lawyer, writer, and journalist of Colombia.He was born in the state of Cundinamarca and educated in Bogotá. He then spent time in Cuba and Caracas, Venezuela, returning in 1847. He founded a publishing house and a newspaper before joining the...
, Marco Fidel Suárez
Marco Fidel Suárez
Marco Fidel Suárez was a Colombian political figure. He served as president of Colombia from 1918 to 1921. He was born on April 23, 1855, in the town of Hatoviejo, Antioquia...
, Miguel Antonio Caro
Miguel Antonio Caro
Miguel Antonio Caro Tobar was a Colombian scholar, poet, journalist, philosopher, orator, philologist, lawyer and politician.- Biographic data :Miguel Antonio Caro was born in Bogotá on November 10, 1845, and he died in the same city on August 5, 1909....
, and Rufino José Cuervo
Rufino José Cuervo
Rufino José Cuervo Urisarri , was a Colombian writer, linguist and philologist.He studied Latin and Greek, but the main part of his work was dedicated to the study of the dialectal variations of Spanish spoken in Colombia...
among others. The library also possesses publications of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Library, and pictorial works of historical value like the watercolors of the Chorography
Chorography
Chorography is a term deriving from the writings of the ancient geographer Ptolemy, meaning the geographical description of regions...
Commission. A large quantity of audio recordings comes from the legal deposit law, which has also allowed the library to possess a general collection of the majority of the publications made in the country since the year 1830 as well as a newspaper library with publications of priceless value, like the Aviso de Terremoto, considered the premiere periodical publication
Periodical publication
Periodical literature is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly...
in the Republic of Colombia.
The total collection of the Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia exceeds 2,000,000 volumes. Of this, approximately 25% was acquired through the beforementioned legal deposit laws. The other books have mostly come from donations.