Biblioteca Nacional de Chile

National Library of Chile

Front view of the National Library of Chile building
Established	1813
Location	Santiago
Coordinates	33°26′32″S 70°38′45″W / 33.4421°S 70.6457°W / -33.4421; -70.6457Coordinates: 33°26′32″S 70°38′45″W / 33.4421°S 70.6457°W / -33.4421; -70.6457
Branches	N/A
Collection
Size	1,100,000 registries
Access and use
Population served	66,167,182 members of the public
Other information
Director	Ángel Cabeza Monteira
Website	[2]

The Biblioteca Nacional de Chile is the national library of Chile. It is located on the Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins in Santiago, in a building completed in 1925, though its history reaches to the early nineteenth century before it was relocated to its current home.

The Biblioteca Nacional is, together with the Instituto Nacional and a small number of institutions, one of the first institutions created by the newly formed Republic of Chile in the Patria Vieja period. In the newspaper El Monitor Araucano, a Proclama de Fundación ("Proclamation of Foundation") of the Biblioteca Nacional was published on August 19, 1813. With this vision, a call was made to all the citizens to submit their books for the formation of one great public library. As with other republican institutions, the library was closed after the Disaster of Rancagua, in which the national troops were defeated by the army of the realistas. With the victorious Battle of Chacabuco, it was reopened and supported by the government, and started to receive important collections. The Supreme Director of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins, named professor Manuel de Salas as the first director of the Biblioteca Nacional. In 1822 Friar Camilo Henríquez (director of the Aurora de Chile) newspaper was named as the second head librarian.

Since its creation, the library had been a dependency of the Universidad de San Felipe and its successor, the Universidad de Chile, until it gained autonomy in 1852. In 1913, upon its 100th anniversary, the Biblioteca Nacional acquired the Monasterio de Santa Clara, located on the Alameda de las Delicias on present-day Cerro Santa Lucía. At the creation in 1929, the library was made into a dependency of the Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos.