Formal Name: Biblioteca Nacional "jose Marti"
Name of Librarian: Marta Terry Gonzalez
Address:
Pl de la Revolucion, Apdo Oficial 3, La Habana
Phone: (07) 708277
History
In 1901, by a military order during the United States occupacion of Cuba, a director to the National Library was appointed. In 1936 a Cuban writer and histohan, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, who was Historian of the City of Havana, denounced the poor condition of the National Library through his articles in the weekly magazine Carteles and called urgently for improvement. The Asociaci6n de Amigos de la Biblioteca National (Association of Friends of the National Library) was founded. Many distinguished writers and historians were members, with Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring as President.
In 1935 the Foreign National Association, based in New York, published a report entitled "Problems of the New Cuba.'' which cited the National Library's "shameful conditions. Its shelves were drawn off during the President Machado administration and the books were packed into boxes and stored in a facility belonging to a state prison, and even though they have already been returned to the library the deplorable state of the building and the shelves made possible the unpacking [of only] a few volumes; in addition a fire took place in the building and a great deal of books were burned to ashes."
In 1938 the government decided to move the Library to the Castillo de la Fuerza and to tear down the building that housed it and build a police station instead. The books were packed again with haste and transferred to their new place.
After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, sweeping changes took place in the Library as well as in the rest of the country. Maria Teresa Freyre de Andrade, Cuban librarian and long a fighter for the development of librarianship in Cuba, was appointed Director of the institution. She started intense efforts to move the National Library toward modern goals and to make libranes reach everyone. She also encouraged the reform of library science studies at both university and technical levels.
The government resolved that all books that belonged to dictator Fulgencio Batista (1901-73), to his associaees, and to people leaving the country should be transferred to the National Library. These "rescued libraries" played an important role in filling out the collections of the National Library and in starting collections in the new libraries in various parts of the country.
Sources:
World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed.
Chicago: American Library Association,c1993.