National Library of Catalonia

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Library of Catalonia
Biblioteca de Catalunya
Biblioteca de Catalunya.svg
Biblioteca de Catalunya - Sala interior.JPG
Main hall
Type Library
Established1907
Coordinates 41°22′52″N2°10′11″E / 41.38111°N 2.16972°E / 41.38111; 2.16972 Coordinates: 41°22′52″N2°10′11″E / 41.38111°N 2.16972°E / 41.38111; 2.16972
Collection
Other information
DirectorEugènia Serra  Blue pencil.svg
Website www.bnc.cat
Main entrance Biblioteca de Catalunya - Entrada principal.JPG
Main entrance
Former hospital building where the library was inaugurated in 1940 Biblioteca de Catalunya - Nau de tramuntana.JPG
Former hospital building where the library was inaugurated in 1940

The Library of Catalonia (Catalan : Biblioteca de Catalunya, IPA:  [biβli.uˈtɛkə ðə kətəˈluɲə] ) is a Catalan library located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic production and that related to the Catalan linguistic area, to look after its conservation, and to spread its bibliographic heritage while maintaining the status of a center for research and consultation. [1]

Catalan language Romance language

Catalan is a Western Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain. It is the only official language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. It also has semi-official status in the Italian commune of Alghero. It is also spoken in the eastern strip of Aragon, in some villages of Region of Murcia called Carche and in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France. These territories are often called Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".

Library Organized collection of resources

A library is a collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical building or room, or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, films, maps, prints, documents, microform, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, e-books, audiobooks, databases, and other formats. Libraries range in size from a few shelves of books to several million items. In Latin and Greek, the idea of a bookcase is represented by Bibliotheca and Bibliothēkē : derivatives of these mean library in many modern languages, e.g. French bibliothèque.

Barcelona City and municipality in Catalonia, Spain

Barcelona is a city in Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits, its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the Province of Barcelona and is home to around 4.8 million people, making it the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area and Milan. It is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres high.

Contents

It occupies 8,820 m² and has about three million items.

History

The library was founded in 1907 as the library of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. It was opened to the public in 1914, in the time of the Commonwealth of Catalonia, and was housed in the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya. [2]

Institut dEstudis Catalans academic institution in Catalonia

The Institut d'Estudis Catalans, also known by the acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Spain.

Commonwealth of Catalonia

The Commonwealth of Catalonia was an institution which grouped the four diputacions of Catalonia. It was created on 6 April 1914, although the process of creating the institution had started in 1911, and was disbanded and outlawed in 1925 during Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship.

Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya government building

The Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya is a historic palace in Barcelona, Catalonia. It houses the offices of the Presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It is one of the few buildings of medieval origin in Europe that still functions as a seat of government and houses the institution that originally built it.

In 1914 the Commonwealth of Catalonia converted the library of the IEC into a public cultural service. [2] In its early days, the library was situated in an area of the Palau de la Generalitat in Barcelona. In 1929, the library was acquired by the city government of Barcelona. In 1931, the 15th century buildings formerly occupied by the (Old) Hospital de la Santa Creu were declared a part of Spain's historical patrimony; and the municipality of Barcelona approved the cession of large portion of the site to the Biblioteca de Catalunya. [3]

Old Hospital de la Santa Creu, Barcelona building

The Old Hospital de la Santa Creu is a 15th-to-18th-century building complex in Barcelona, which formerly served as a hospital and hospice and currently is the home of the National Library of Catalonia, the Institute for Catalan Studies, the former College of Surgeons, and an art school. It has been declared a Historic and Artistic Landmark of National Interest.

In 1936 the first reading room, the Sala Cervantina was opened, but the project was halted because of the Civil War and not all of the necessary adaptations were completed. After the fall of Barcelona in early 1939, the library was closed until 1940. [3] After the Spanish Civil War, in 1940, the library was renamed the Central Library in Francoist Spain and moved to its new site, where it remains to this day. In Francoist Spain, the institution was turned into a general use library, which was intended to supplement the deficiencies of the public and university libraries. [2]

Spanish Civil War War between the Republicans and the Nationalists in Spain from 1936 to 1939

The Spanish Civil War took place from 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Second Spanish Republic, in alliance with the Anarchists and Communists, fought against the Nationalists, an alliance of Falangists, Monarchists, and Catholics, led by General Francisco Franco. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war had many facets, and different views saw it as class struggle, a war of religion, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, between fascism and anarchism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939 and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

Francoist Spain Period of Spain (1936 to 1975)

Francoist Spain, known in Spain as the Francoist dictatorship, officially known as the Spanish State from 1936 to 1947 and the Kingdom of Spain from 1947 to 1975, is the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain as dictator with the title Caudillo.

In 1981 it was made the library of Catalonia by the Llei de biblioteques ('Libraries law') of 1981, approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, conferring upon it the duties of the reception, conservation, and distribution of the Catalan legal deposit. In 1993, the Law of the Library System of Catalonia extended the institution's depository functions and helped in its modernization, which included the remodelling of the building, its reorganization and the digitization of its procedures. [2]

Parliament of Catalonia Parliament that exercises the legislative power of the Government of Catalonia

The Parliament of Catalonia is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is formed by 135 members ("diputats"), who are elected every four years or after extraordinary dissolution, chosen by universal suffrage in lists with four constituencies, the Catalan provinces. The Parliament building is located in Ciutadella park, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The requirement is mostly limited to books and periodicals. The number of copies varies and can range from one to 19. Typically, the national library is one of the repositories of these copies. In some countries there is also a legal deposit requirement placed on the government, and it is required to send copies of documents to publicly accessible libraries.

During the 1990s, a major renovation project further transformed the library, including the construction of four underground levels of storage (creating more than 40 kilometres of shelf-space) and the annex building. [3] In 1998, the library renovated the Gothic elements of its buildings and extended its space, thanks to the construction of a new services building.

Partnership with Google

In 2007, the Biblioteca de Catalunya and four more Catalan libraries agreed to join the digitization project. These libraries have begun digitizing books of theirs that are in the public domain. [4] The digitization partnership project is intended to make these books available on the Internet. [5] [6] The Biblioteca de Catalunya acts as coordinator and intermediary on behalf of the other four Catalan libraries participating in the project:

The Catalan libraries group became the second non-Anglo-Saxon collaborator to join the Google Books Library Project, within the Google Book Search program. In 1977, the Library of Catalonia joined another Spanish participant in the project, the Complutense University of Madrid. [7]

Statistics

See also

Related Research Articles

Catalonia Autonomous area of northeastern Spain

Catalonia is an autonomous community in Spain on the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Catalonia consists of four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain and the core of the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union. It comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is bordered by France (Occitanie) and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan.

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The Government of Catalonia or the Generalitat de Catalunya is the institution under which the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia is politically organised. It consists of the Parliament of Catalonia, the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Executive Council of Catalonia.

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Lluís Domènech i Montaner Spanish architect and politician

Lluís Domènech i Montaner was a Spanish architect who was highly influential on Modernisme català, the Catalan Art Nouveau/Jugendstil movement. He was also a Catalan politician.

National Day of Catalonia public holiday in Catalonia

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Football is the most important sport in Catalonia and was introduced in the late 19th century by a combination of mostly British immigrant workers and visiting sailors, and students returning from Britain. Catalonia led the way in the development of football in Spain, organising both the first association and the first league. Today football in Catalonia is organized by the Catalan Football Federation and the RFEF and teams from Catalonia compete in La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Copa Catalunya and several European competitions.

Estat Català

Estat Català is a pro-independence nationalist historical political party of Catalonia (Spain).

Culture of Barcelona

Barcelona'sculture stems from the city's 2000 years of history. To a greater extent than the rest of Catalonia, where Catalonia's native Catalan is more dominant, Barcelona is a bilingual city: Catalan and Spanish are both official languages and widely spoken. Since the arrival of democracy, the Catalan culture has been promoted, both by recovering works from the past and by stimulating the creation of new works.

The "Catalan of the Year" award is organized by El Periódico de Catalunya, which since 2000 recognizes the Catalan person that was the most prominent in the development of their social or professional activity during the previous year. The award is voted by readers of the newspaper, after a previous selection of different nominees by am jury composed of persons from different social environments.

The Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària, in English Textile and Clothing Museum, is a museum opened on 1982 and located in the Palau Reial de Pedralbes in Barcelona. The museum possesses countless objects and pieces of major artistic and historical value that make up their collections of garments, fabrics and jewellery. Regarding their collection of clothes, the museum allows you to take a journey through the history of textiles, from the 16th century right up to the modern day. The museum's collections include Coptic, Hispano-Arab, Gothic and Renaissance fabrics, as well as embroidery, a section on lacework and a collection of prints. Also worth mentioning is the jewelry collection, comprising approximately five hundred pieces that were made and produced in Spain.

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National Archive of Catalonia Is the body created by the Generalitat of Catalonia that holds both government and private documents relating to Catalonias society, politics, economics and history.

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Dolors Lamarca Spanish librarian

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Francoist Catalonia

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References

  1. ↑ Missió i funcions de la BC (in Catalan)
  2. 1 2 3 4 La Biblioteca de Catalunya (Guide in English) Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine , p. 4.
  3. 1 2 3 La Biblioteca de Catalunya (Guide in English) Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine , p. 6.
  4. ↑ BNC Guide in English, p 22 – "Accord with Google" Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Lamalla.net Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ SoftCatala.cat Archived 21 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ La Biblioteca de Catalunya (Guide in English) Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine , p. 22.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 La Biblioteca de Catalunya (Guide in English) Archived 21 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine , p. 30.

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