Ten brief notes about the recent history of the Biblioteca de Catalunya (1993-2007)

The state of the Biblioteca de Catalunya (Catalan national library) and the changes produced from 1992 to 2007 are analysed. This paper touches on the following aspects: legal situation stemming from new laws defining the role of the national library and the 2004 government agreement on its funding; evolution towards a more open library, with special emphasis on heritage preservation functions; physical growth with the library’s expansion to occupy the entire building of what for centuries had housed a hospital and the construction of new external repositories; improvement of services such as access to the online catalogue and faster cataloguing processes; use of technologies for offering virtual web services; cooperation with other organizations and participation in consortia and collaborative projects; increase in the patrimonial collection through the purchase of unique works, such as authors’ personal archives, etc.; digitization projects making old and rare material accessible online; and preservation of Catalan digital heritage through several current projects. In this way, the Biblioteca de Catalunya approaches its centennial by embarking on new projects.