Library science

THE LIBRARY SCIENCE COLLECTION

1. History of the collection

The origins of this collection date back to 1950. It was in that year that the Directorate General for Archives and Libraries organised the Technical Training Courses for Archivists, Librarians and Archaeologists, forming a reference library for the use of students and teaching staff. These courses were subsequently consolidated, creating the School for Documentalists which, under different names, operated for over 20 years. The school was closed in 1986 when library science and documentation studies became part of mainstream education and were taught in universities.

With the creation of the Ministry of Culture, several of its centres were restructured and their specialist libraries were added to those from the former school and placed under the management of the Book and Reading Centre under the name of the Librarians' Library, which operated from 1988 to 1991.

In 1992, it was transferred to the Biblioteca Nacional de España, coinciding with the latter's creation as an autonomous body, and existing library science assets were incorporated into the Bibliographic Information Service; this specialist library was called the Library Science Documentation Service.

It is currently a unit belonging to the Bibliographic Information Service, within the Reference Department, and has its own reference room.

2. The holdings

It is a collection specialising in Library Science, Documentation, Archive and Museum Sciences, together with topics closely related to these disciplines, such as the History of Books and ICTs. 

1. Monographs. Duplicates and other material not in use have been transferred to the second depository of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, located in Alcalá de Henares. In order to disseminate the latest titles received a Newsletter is published, which gives bibliographic information of works on Library Science received in recent months. Many of these records include the digitalised cover and a summary of the work.
2. Pamphlets.
3. Periodical Publications. 180 titles corresponding to current magazines in five languages. Some of these publications are still consulted in hard copy, while for others their digital editions must be used. Users can access the full text of the e-zines through El Buscón or through the lists of free electronic magazines and of subscription e-zines. Free e-zines can be consulted from any computer, whereas subscription based e-zines must be consulted from BNE computers. The Al Día Summaries Newsletter is published to disseminate the contents of magazines still received in hard copy.

Bibliography of the collection

• PÉREZ FRÍAS, Emiliano. "Servicio de Documentación Bibliotecaria ("Biblioteca del Bibliotecario")" [Interview by Benjamín Cabaleiro]". In Educación y Biblioteca. (1996), n. 68; pp. 44-47.
• "Servicio de Documentación Bibliotecaria". In Educación y Biblioteca. (1993), n. 37; pp. 12-13.
• "Servicio de Documentación Bibliotecaria (SDB o Biblioteca del Bibliotecario)"/ Raúl Rubalcaba Banco... [et al.] In Documentación de las Ciencias de la Información. (1998), n. 21; pp. 196-199.