Nicaragua

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 Formal Name:           Biblioteca Nacional
 Name of Librarian:    Carlos A. Bravo
 Address:                   C del Triunfo 302, Apdo 101, Managua

History & Collections

The National Library of Nicaragua was founded in 1882. At its inception it occupied the Nacional Palace; it later transferred to its own building in the western sector of Managua, the capital. After the earthquake of 1972 it was transferred again, to the National Cultural Center in the northeastern section of the capital. The National Library originally contained approximately 5,000 volumes; in the mid-1980 it held 70,000, consisting of Nicaraguan bibliography, works of reference, textbooks, and
other items, including works for leisure reading. The Library was named after Ruben Dario (1867-1916), the great Hispanic-American poet who in hisearlier years was employed in it as Assistant Librarian. With the goal of eventually fulfilling the objectives of a truly national library, it attended in the meantime to the immediate needs of the student body of Managua. Costs of defense and economic stringency under the Sandinista government in the early 1980s led to rationing of many basic goods and deterioration in many public services, including library services.

Sources:

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