What´s about?

Bibliographic materials prior to 1958.

With the aim of managing, preserving, and disseminating the Spanish Bibliographic Heritage, the BNE, through the Permanent Commission of the Royal Board of Trustees, acquires various works to complete and enrich the most comprehensive collection of pieces that document the development of our culture, history, and science, its role in the world, the image it projects in other countries, and the study of other cultures that in turn influence it.

Selection criteria

Edited works in spain

• Items not in the Library because they were censored or because they came from unknown printers.
• School books that were lost.
• Subjects underrepresented in the Library's collections.
• Editions of short-run...
• Antique collection: Manuscripts and old books of the great classics of universal culture and those that are especially valuable due to their age, such as incunabula, in accordance with Historical Heritage regulations.
• Works in Arabic and Hebrew, of capital importance, for example, in the area of science.
• Documents printed or produced in places that were linked to Spain at certain times in history, such as the Netherlands, Italy (Naples and Sicily), the Philippines, and Latin America.

Edited works outside Spain

• Works by Spanish authors, with special attention to those by exiles who published in other countries, especially in Latin America.
• Works published in Spanish or other official languages.
• Spanish authors works translated into other languages.
• Works by foreign authors that deal with Spanish themes. These are especially important for understanding the spread of our culture and the interest Spain generated abroad.

All these criteria apply equally to periodical publications.

The selection of what we call "special materials" (prints, drawings, photographs, sheet music, records, etc.) is carried out by the corresponding specialized services, which are qualified to indicate the opportunity for their acquisition. Documents known as "ephemera" have been gaining importance. These include material with short-lived information, produced for a very specific time, such as posters, comics, labels, etc.

All bibliographic and documentary materials eligible for acquisition by the BNE undergo a thorough examination to verify their integrity and the state of preservation of the copy, in order to obtain the relevant materials in the best physical condition.