page_title: National Library of the Argentine Republic
section_title: National Library
hierarchical_section_title: National Library of the Argentine Republic / History / National Library
caption_attribution_description: The former main building of the Argentine National Library, on 564 Mexico Street, in the San Telmo ward of Buenos Aires. Inaugurated as the headquarters of the National Lottery in 1893, the building served as the National Library between 1901 and 1992, currently serving as the institution's archive and periodicals library.
context_page_description: The "Mariano Moreno" National Library is the largest library in Argentina. It is located in the barrio of Recoleta in Buenos Aires. The library is named after Mariano Moreno, one of the ideologists of the May Revolution and its first director.
  The National Library is an agency under the Ministry of Culture of Argentina.
context_section_description: When Buenos Aires became the capital of the Republic, the Public Library of Buenos Aires became the National Library and Antonio Wilde was appointed as its director. Wilde’s tenure did not last long due to his old age and death after a sudden illness. Paul Groussac followed his directorship. Groussac created a methodical classification system based on Brunet’s bibliographic model, undertook the cataloging of the manuscript collection, and published two remarkable journals: La Biblioteca, being one of the most prestigious literary journals, and Los Anales de la Biblioteca.
  Another milestone was the opening of the building on Mexico Street (in the Montserrat ward) in 1901, a building which was originally designed for the National Lottery. This is the reason early visitors unfamiliar with the story of the building were commonly surprised when walking a staircase adorned with lottery-ornaments. During Groussac’s forty-year administration the library’s patrimony was also enriched with many important donations including Angel Justiniano Carranza‘s personal collection, 18,600 volumes from the nineteenth-century legal expert Amancio Alcorta, and Martín García Merou’s collection - which included valuable papers regarding the foundation of the city of Buenos Aires. Ironically, just as the former director Mármol and the future director, Borges, Groussac developed blindness. He still operated as the National Library’s director for some years before dying in 1929.
  In 1931 the widely known novelist Gustavo Martínez Zuviría was appointed as the Library’s eighteenth director. During Martinez Zuviria’s tenure the modernization of services and the growth of the library collection became his focus; both of which enhanced the nation’s heritage. Among the many purchases and donations received, it is important to highlight his purchase of the Foulché-Delbosc collection.
  The next director, whose presence is one of Argentina’s key twentieth century intellectual figures, was Jorge Luis Borges. He managed the institution along with the vice director Edmundo José Clemente from 1955 through 1973. Shortly after his appointment he was informed that he needed to give up reading and writing because of his weakened vision.
caption: The former main building
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