National Library of Peru

Biblioteca Nacional del Perú
English	National Library of Peru
National Library of Peru
Country	Peru
Established	1821
Location	Lima
Other information
Director	Ant. Ramón Mujica Pinilla
Website	http//:www.bnp.gob.pe

The Biblioteca Nacional del Perú is the national library of Peru, located in Lima. It is the country's oldest and most important library. Like the majority of Peruvian libraries, it is a non-circulating library.

History

The library was founded by José de San Martín in 1821, after he donated his collection of books and praised the new library as: "... one of the most efficient mediums to place into circulation our intellectual values". The library has various duties, among which it must formulate, conduct, supervise, and evaluate the fulfillment of policies and plans of development of library service within a national and international sphere for educational purposes. These and other administrative decisions concerning the library also depend on the ministry of education of the country.

Historically, the library has passed through various phases of restructuring since its foundation. During the War of the Pacific, the Chilean army, after taking Lima, ransacked various items along with much capital stock from the library. Peruvian author and scholar Ricardo Palma, who was director of the library in 1884, noted in one of his recounts that of the 30,000 works the library possessed before the war, only 300 were left at the end of the occupation.^{[citation needed]} There are current talks between the director of the library and Chilean authorities on identifying works which might belong to Peru that would be eventually returnable. Another significant event the library has gone through was a fire which almost completely destroyed the grounds of the library on May 10, 1943, in which various highly valued historical works were lost.^[1] A new building was erected on the same grounds of the old library along with a training center for future librarian administrators.

Modernization

The National Library of Peru is currently undergoing a modernization program which aspires to turn the library into one of Latin America's most modern libraries. It is located in Lima's San Borja district. After years of financial planning for the new building, the government of Peru financially collaborated to finish the building, along with a loan of up to seven million dollars from Spain to equip the new library with modern equipment. According to official sources from the library, it is said to have a bibliographic patrimony valued in some 400 million dollars. Among historical works the library has is the first book printed in Lima in 1584 along with other historical books dating back to colonial times. The new library will also attempt to connect to other Peruvian libraries in an effort to create an online national catalog of books and other materials for better research.

The new library was officially inaugurated on March 27, 2006. To mark the occasion, the then Minister of Education, Javier Sota Nadal, commissioned a symphonic poem from Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez. The work titled "America Salvaje" is inspired by the poem "Blasón" from José Santos Chocano. President Alejandro Toledo and National Library director Sinesio López were present at the inauguration. ^[2]

The new library's building in San Borja District

The National Library System in Peru

The National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) is the head of the Sistema Nacional de Bibliotecas (SNB) del Perú. As a matter of fact, the SNB has not been developed for two main reasons: first, the lack of a proper and modern legislation; and second, a chronicle lack of resources. All of government run public libraries in Peru are non-circulating and books must be used and read on the premises. This has caused that Peru has traditionally reared neighboring countries like Colombia, Chile, and recently, Ecuador. Politicians and intellectuals have not helped to improve an obsolete system of service. A recent publication in "El Comercio," an influential newspaper, shows that only 60% of cities (or districts in Peru) have a public library, and most of them do not have open shelves, Internet, magazines, computers, telephone, online catalogs, and copy machines. There is a sense of urgency about how to improve, first by using available resources applied to promote not only the infrastructure but also to encourage the people to find all the richness that only libraries can keep. Since August 2006 the BNP director was Mr. Hugo Neira, an intellectual that was before teaching at a French university in Papeete, Tahiti. He has just resigned in November 2009, and for the first time in long time a professional librarian, Ms. Nancy Herrera C., is at the helm of the BN and the languid SNB. Since September 16 2010 the BNP director is the anthropologist Ramón Mujica Pinilla. His tenure was expected to end once the new elected government assumed in July 28 2011. To the surprise of many the newly elected administration appointed Mujica to another term. The inventory which indicates close to a thousand works are missing began under Director Herrera. Since February 2011, the BNP main facility - the new building - is closed for 90 days after reports of some of the most valuable materials, ancient printings, are missing.

Nobody knows if a new government will take the steps needed about investing in new and modern libraries, in parallel with a wide reading stimulus program like those in Colombia and Chile. The country has not taken the political measures that open an Amazon River of knowledge and entertainment for its widely poor population.

See also

• List of Chilean-Peruvian controversies

References

1. ^ LOST MEMORY - LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES DESTROYED IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (Archived at WebCite)
2. ^ "Fue inaugurada la nueva sede de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú". National Library of Peru. 2006-03-28. http://www.bnp.gob.pe/portalbnp/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=159:fue-inaugurada-la-nueva-sede-de-la-biblioteca-nacional-del-per&catid=19:abril2006&Itemid=266. Retrieved 2011-09-11. 

External links

• (Spanish) Biblioteca Nacional del Perú
• (Spanish) Biblioteca Nacional del Perú (Biblioteca Virtual)
• (Spanish) Biblioteca Nacional del Perú (Blog de la Biblioteca Virtual)
• (Spanish) librosperuanos.com related articles