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.