Costa Rica

Directory Information

 Formal Name:           Biblioteca Nacional
 Name of Librarian:    Rosario Solano Murillo
 Address:                   C 15-17, Av 3 y 3b, Apdo 10008-1000, San Jose
 Phone:   2212436      Fax:   2235510

 Created in 1887, the Library of the University of Saint Thomas, in the capital, San Jose, became the National Library when
that university was closed. Under a law instituted in 1910, the Nacional Library became the depository, for the national bibliography, and publishers were required to deposit their publications with it. From 1980 the National Library became the center of a system of
libraries forming part of a national plan designed to centralize  cataloguing and classification.  Access  is provided in the Library, through loans between the various libraries of the system, and through loans for home use. The National Library maintains a National
Register of authors' rights and associated matters as well as the National ISBN Agency. It publishes an "Index of Newspapers and Weeklies" and a "National Analytic Index of Periodicals."


Sources:

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