The ideal tool for discovering the contents of the National Library is the Automated Catalogue, which currently offers the bibliographic records of over 3,000,000 different works and the location of 7,000,000 different assets or items. The catalogue contains information on: monographs, magazines and newspapers, personal manuscripts and archives, drawings, engravings and photographs, maps and plans, video recordings, music scores and sound recordings.
Should you be in doubt about any of the call numbers of these assets, please consult the call number tables.
In addition to its catalogue, the library also prepares and participates in the main Collective Catalogues of Spanish assets. Thanks to these information tools, you can only have to consult one source to learn about the assets of many libraries. The following catalogues contain some of the National Library's most important collections:
- Collective Catalogue of Periodic Publications and Monographs, contains 84,000 periodic publications and monographs which are housed in 1,100 Spanish libraries.
- Collective Catalogue of Bibliographic Heritage, contains most of the National Library's collection of printed documents dating back to between the 15th and 19th centuries together with the assets of nearly 700 Spanish libraries.
- Instrumenta Musicae. Collective Catalogue of 19th Century Music Assets in Latin American libraries.
To know which BN assets are digitalised and therefore can be consulted on-line, please go to the section on Digital Collections, which indicates the books, drawings, engravings, photographs, maps and music scores available on digital support. Furthermore, you can consult the main digital exhibitions created using emblematic collections of the library and a link is provided to the website Classics in the National Library, which has been prepared with the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
You can also consult the complete text, in PDF format, of the National Library's General Inventory of Manuscripts on this website.
Should you prefer, you can make specific enquiries on a type of material: incunabula, manuscripts, maps…
If you want information on the libraries and newspaper libraries that exist in Spain, you can consult the new version of the Directory of Spanish Libraries and Newspaper Libraries, which provides comprehensive information on the location, opening hours, assets and services of over 10,450 Spanish libraries, including those which are dependent on the Instituto Cervantes abroad.