Adquisiciones

The Biblioteca Nacional de España is the leading centre for information and documentation on Spanish and Latin American written culture as it has been the Legal Deposit library for publications printed within Spanish territory since the beginning of the 18th century.

A  variable number of copies of every type of bibliographic material produced in Spain continues to be deposited in the library via this procedure. This ensures compilation of the national collection and dissemination of the same through the Spanish Bibliography, facilitating consultation and conservation of the material.

Other means employed to increase the bibliographic collection are purchases, exchanges, donations and bequests. These procedures are used to replace losses, complete collections and maintain reference works of interest to the Biblioteca Nacional and researchers up to date.

Special emphasis is placed on the acquisition of documents that, due to their age or merit, it is considered to be of national interest to possess and conserve. Donations and bequests are regulated by various provisions.
 

Acquisition of the following is considered a priority:

•  Retrospective Spanish bibliographic materials unavailable on the current book market.
• Foreign publications on Spanish culture in the broadest sense.
• Works by Spanish authors published abroad.
• Editions in vernacular language critiquing the works of the world's great thinkers and creators.
• General and specialist reference works on the humanities and social science, with special emphasis placed on Latin America.
• Major treatises on the various different disciplines.
• Publications on information science and documentation.

In addition, the library also acquires the following material through International Exchange: 

• Official publications from some of the countries party to International Conventions.
• Books and journals from countries with which Spain has inter-governmental cultural agreements.