Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina
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The Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina (Spanish, National Library of the Argentine Republic) is the largest library of Argentina and one of the most important in the Americas. It is located in the barrio of Recoleta in Buenos Aires.
The National Library was officially created by decree of the first Government Junta of the May Revolution on 1810-09-07, with the name Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires (Public Library of Buenos Aires), and its initial bibliography was gathered from donations. Its first director (designated "Protector") was Mariano Moreno. The name of the library was changed to its current form on 1884-10-05, upon the assumption of José Antonio Wilde (who directed the library for only three months, until his death).
Other renowned directors of the Library were the poet José Mármol (1858–1871), the Franco-Argentine historian Paul Groussac (1885–1929, the longest term), and the poet, writer and essayist Jorge Luis Borges (1955–1973). By a strange coincidence, all three of these men became completely blind during their tenures as chief librarian [1].
Borges and his Sub-Director, the essayist and librarian José Edmundo Clemente, called for the move to a new building. In 1960 a national law set aside 30,000 m² for it, in 1971 the construction was started. The new building was inaugurated by President Carlos Menem on 1992-04-10, and the moving of the book collection from the old seat ended on 1993-09-21.
