Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal

The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal is the Portuguese national library, fulfilling the function of legal deposit and copyright.HistoryThe library was created by Decree of 29 February 1796, under the name of Royal Public Library of the Court. The library's objective was to allow the general public access to the court's collections, thus bucking the trend of the time only available to scholars and sages could access the treasures, manuscripts, paintings, and books of the royal court.In the dawn of the victory of the Liberals and the abolition of the religious orders (1834), the institution was renamed the National Library of Lisbon and was officially entrusted with all or part of the libraries of numerous monasteries and convents. The arrival of these large collections made it absolutely necessary to move to larger premises, and the choice fell on the Convento de São Francisco. Over the more than 130 years in which it operated in the Chiado area of the city, the BNL experienced periods of modernisation and enrichment and times of greyness and lethargy. We should particularly note the efforts that were made in the 19th century to absorb the collections of the abolished religious establishments, organise bibliographic exhibitions and publish catalogues of a variety of collections.The proclamation of the Republic (1910) was followed by the incorporation of a new wave of libraries from another round of abolitions of religious institutions. Between 1920 and 1926 the BNL enjoyed a phase in which it took a major step forward in the field of library and information science and benefited from a flourishing cultural life, all of which was promoted by the so-called “Library Group”. The growth of the collections and the need for conditions suited to the conservation of the Library’s rich holdings made it indispensable to construct a purpose-designed building that would provide the largest Portuguese bibliographic collection with a proper home. Work began in 1958, to a design by the architect Porfírio Pardal Monteiro, and the Library was transferred to the new building in the Campo Grande area in 1969. The process of computerising the Library began in the 1980s, alongside a broader project intended to support all of Portugal’s libraries in this respect, which resulted in the creation of the National Bibliographic Database – PORBASE. At the same time as it adapted to the process of technological evolution, the Library continued to enrich its collections. Of particular significance was the creation of an Archive of Writers’ Personal Papers, but a number of major initiatives were also undertaken with regard to the standardisation of library and information techniques, preservation and conservation, and cultural activities.