Colombia

Directory Information

 Formal Name:           Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia
 Name of Librarian:    Ruben Sierra Mejia
 Address:                   C 24, 5-60, Apdo 27600, Santafe de Bogota
 Phone:                      (91) 2414029

History

 Thr BN was founded in 1777 with books confiscated from  the Jesuits when they were ordered to leave by Charles III of Spain. Francisco Moreno y Escandon, Royal Auditor Fiscal, is considered its  founder.  The first Director of great merit was a Cuban, Manuel del Socorro Rodriguez, also the father of Colombian journalism.

Collections

The BN has about 600,000 volumes, with 28.000 in the Rare Books Section, including 40 incunabula. Its Newspaper and Magazine Room receives around 1.000 cities and is the country's most complete collection, dating to Colonial times. In the early 1980s the budget was five million pesos, not counting regular staff and running costs.


Sources:

World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association,c1993.