The National Library of Mexico () is located in Ciudad Universitaria, the main campus of the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM) in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. It was first established on November 30, 1867. As a

national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...

it is the preeminent bibliographic repository of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and is subject to

legal deposit Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...

. It also attempts to acquire all foreign books published about Mexico. Its collection of 1,250,000 documents, including books, maps and recordings makes it one of the largest libraries in Mexico and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. Newspapers and other periodicals are archived in the National Newspaper Library of Mexico (''Hemeroteca Nacional de México'') located also in Ciudad Universitaria, next to the facilities of the National Library.

History

The collections of the Pontifical and Royal University of México (predecessor of modern UNAM) formed the initial endowment of the National Library after the University's dissolution. The decree establishing the National Library came into force on October 26, 1833. Further decrees in 1846 and 1857 attempted to clarify the scope and functions of the Library.

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican politician, military commander, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. A Zapotec peoples, Zapotec, he w ...

issued a decree on November 30, 1867, in which the National Library acquired most of its modern prerogatives, including legal deposit. Also, this same decree relocated the Library to the in downtown Mexico City. In 1914 the National Library was linked to the National Autonomous University of Mexico. When the University achieved autonomy in 1929 the Library formed a constituent part of it. The was established by the University in 1967 in order to facilitate the administration of the National Library. The National Library moved to its current location in the UNAM campus of Ciudad Universitaria in 1979. However the Reserves Collection (see below) stayed in a special room at St. Agustine's Church. The building was damaged during the 1985 earthquake and as a consequence it was decided to build a new annex to the current National Library building. The new annex was inaugurated in 1993.

Services

Many of the Library's services are available to the general public. These include an open consultation room for books and

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

s, as well as separate rooms for maps, didactic materials, audio and video recordings, and a room with resources for blind users. Most documents available in these rooms can be partially reproduced on demand at low cost in the Library's facilities. The Library additionally offers cataloguing and book preservation services. Guided tours through the facilities are available upon request.

Reserves Collection

The Reserves Collection (''Fondo Reservado'') stores the most valuable documents owned by the Library. This collection is available only to researchers and comprises about 200,000 documents. It is divided in four sections: # Rare and valuable works: includes 170

incunabula An incunable or incunabulum (: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside (printing), broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The specific date is essentiall ...

, including a 1498 edition of Dante's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

''. It also has copies of the first books printed in Mexico, of which the oldest in existence are ''Recognitio summularum'' and ''Dialéctica resolutio'' by Alonso de la Veracruz. Additionally, the Lafragua Collection contains several volumes documenting the social and economic history of Mexico between 1576 and 1924. # Archives, manuscripts and imagery: contains manuscripts and archives produced by several figures and institutions of Mexican history. It also has a collection of photographs, paintings and engravings known as the ''Iconoteca''. # Original collection (''Fondo de Origen''): comprises 95,000 documents, most of which were printed in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

between 1501 and 1821. # Special collections: these include private collections and personal libraries either acquired through donations or purchased by the Library. Notable collections include those that belonged to

Mario Colín Sánchez Mario (; ) is a character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Japanese video game company Nintendo. ...

María Asúnsolo Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

Ángel Pola Angel is a given name meaning "angel", "messenger". In the English-speaking world Angel is used for both boys and girls. From the medieval Latin masculine name ''Angelus'', which was derived from the name of the heavenly creature (itself derived ...

Gabino Barreda Gabino Barreda (1818, Puebla – 1881, Mexico City) was a Mexican physician, philosophy, philosopher and politician oriented to French positivism. He served in both the Senate of the Republic (Mexico), Senate and the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico ...

and others.

History

Services

Reserves Collection

See also