Periodical publications

1. History of the collection

The Biblioteca Nacional's collection of periodicals comes from two sources. One was the Magazine Section created in 1933 by the Board of Directors of the Biblioteca Nacional and installed by librarian Miguel Artigas. The other was the holdings, conserved by the Biblioteca Nacional, of the Hemeroteca Nacional (National Periodicals Library), created in 1943 to support the teaching work of the newly formed Official Journalism School.

Since 1957, the periodicals collection has consisted of newspapers and magazines which become part of the BNE through the copyright library law, under which two copies of every work printed in Spain must be deposited in the library, although purchases, exchanges and donations also represented important sources for titles entering the Library, mainly of foreign publications. The copies held in the Hemeroteca Nacional mainly come from “censorship”, that is, the editions which the publications had to send to the Government censors, deriving from the Press Acts of 1938 and 1966. Older holdings were soon incorporated through the purchase of representative titles. Also held in the Hemeroteca Nacional is the González Echegaray collection of Spanish newspapers from the War of Independence. With the enactment of Decrees 565/1985 and 848/1986, the Hemeroteca Nacional was integrated in the structure of the Biblioteca Nacional, and the collections of both institutions were merged.

At present the Biblioteca Nacional, in its Recoletos and Alcalá de Henares buildings, conserves the periodical publications printed in Spain, foreign magazines acquired in accordance with its collection development policy, and the valuable collections of scientific and literary journals from all over the world and from different eras received through various donations and confiscation. In 1996 the periodical and newspaper library was physically integrated in the main library, and its holdings were distributed between the two current buildings: Recoletos and Alcalá de Henares.

2. The holdings

The holdings of periodical publications include various categories such as magazines, newspapers, yearbooks, bulletins, guides and reports.

Highlights of the magazine collections include the leading European scientific journals from the 17th-19th centuries, numerous Latin American publications, especially from Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, and the most important Spanish magazines, received through purchases, donations, or transferred to the Biblioteca Nacional from large private and institutional libraries. At present the Biblioteca Nacional holds more than 140,000 magazine titles. The size of the collection is increased by around 3,000 publication titles, on paper, CD-ROM, tapes and diskettes.

The Biblioteca Nacional holds the most important collection of Spanish printed newspapers. The number of titles received by the Library has grown exponentially, particularly since enforcement of the copyright library law under Decree of 23 December 1957. These titles run from the first Spanish periodical publications (Avisos, Gazetas, etc.) to the latest publication to enter under the copyright library law or via other routes, such as purchase, exchange or donation. As well as the national press collection, there is a large collection of foreign press, including the world's leading newspapers, particularly 19th century Latin American press from Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

The periodicals collection also includes Yearbooks and Annals of scientific and commercial companies, Bulletins, Guides, and Reports from public and private institutions, all documents of irreplaceable value for historic research.
The national collection, covering all Spanish print production, includes official Spanish publications, with highlights such as the official gazettes of the central government, the Cortes (Parliament), the autonomous regions, provinces and municipalities.