Formal Name: Biblioteca Nacional
Name of Librarian: Dr H. Sanchez Quell
Address:
De la Residenta c/Peru, Asuncion
History & Collections
The Biblioteca Nacional in Asuncion (BN) was probably an outgrowth of the Municipal Library. Exactly when it was founded is subject to conjecture, but the legislature passed a bill establishing and supporting it in 1897. In 1904 it acquired the Biblioteca Americana of Juan Silvano Godoy, about 15,000 volumes that form the most complete collection of Americana in the Rio de la Plata region. Two years later it acquired the Biblioteca Paraguaya of Enrique Solano Lopez. Its periodicals room holds some of the most important newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries to the present. The BN now has about 40,000 books. It also has its first professional librarian, Carlos Fernandez Caballero, appointed in 1989.
The BN faces many problems, including the poor condition of its building, the need for better relations between professionals and nonprofessionals, and the need for coordinaeed acquisition of materials. The government adopted a deposit law in 1985, requiring all authors and printers to provide five copies of every work published in Paraguay, but the law did not include any provisions for enforcement.
Sources:
World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed.
Chicago: American Library Association, c1993.