Abstract
The Biblioteca Nacional (BN), founded in 1712 as the Royal Library, became the national library in 1836 and has since then served as the nation's bibliographic repository and a public library for Madrid. It became an autonomous body in 1991. In a major reconstruction of the existing BN building, space occupied by other bodies is being recovered. Legal deposit, established in 1716, now includes audio and visual recordings; the BN has not however had the resources needed to ensure enforcement. The Autonomous Regions have legal deposit of all material published in them. A Reproduction and Conservation Unit has been created to conserve the valuable collections of manuscripts, incunabula and rare books. A new computer system has enabled the BN to undertake several important bibliographic tasks, but not yet to fulfil its role as apex of the Spanish library system. After many years of international isolation the library is playing a substantial role in IFLA and in cooperative activities with Latin American libraries. The challenge facing the BN today is to identify and articulate its role as it relates to public libraries in the Autonomous Regions and to university and special libraries.
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