tional Library of the Philippines

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National Library of the Philippines

Pambansang Aklatan ng Pilipinas

The facade of the library facing Kalaw Avenue

Country Philippines

Type National library

Established August 12, 1887 (132 years ago)

Reference to Act No. 96 of the Philippine Commission (passed on March 5, 1901)

legal

mandate

Location Rizal Park, Kalaw Avenue, Ermita, Manila

 14°34′55.37″N120°58′51.73″ECoordinates: 14°34′55.37″N 120°58′51.73″E
Coordinates

Branches N/A

Collection

Items Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music

collected recordings, databases, maps, atlases, microforms, stamps, prints, drawings, manuscripts

Size 1,678,950 items, including 291,672 volumes, 210,000 books, 880,000 manuscripts,

170,000 newspaper issues, 66,000 theses and dissertations, 104,000 government

publications, 53,000 photographs and 3,800 maps (2008)

Criteria for Filipino literary and scholarly works (Filipiniana)

collection

Legal deposit Yes, provided in law by:

 Presidential Decree No. 812

 Republic Act No. 8293

Access and use

Access Reading room services limited to Filipiniana theses and dissertations (while facilities are

requirements under renovation as of August 27, 2019)

Circulation Library does not publicly circulate

Members 34,500 (2007)

Other information

Budget ₱120.6 million (2013)

Director Cesar Gilbert Q. Adriano

Staff 172

Website web.nlp.gov.ph

The National Library of the Philippines (Filipino: Pambansang Aklatan ng Pilipinas or Aklatang
Pambansa ng Pilipinas, abbreviated NLP) is the official national library of the Philippines. The
complex is located in Ermita on a portion of Rizal Park facing T. M. Kalaw Avenue, neighboring
culturally significant buildings such as the Museum of Philippine Political History and the National
Historical Commission. Like its neighbors, it is under the jurisdiction of the National Commission for
Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
 The library is notable for being the home of the original copies of the defining works of José
Rizal: Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismoand Mi último adiós.

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Origins (1887–1900)
o 1.2Establishment (1900–1941)
o 1.3World War II (1941–1946)
o 1.4Reconstruction (1946–1964)
o 1.5Contemporary history (1964–)
 2Building
 3Collections
 4References
 5External links

History[edit]
Origins (1887–1900)[edit]
The National Library of the Philippines can trace its history to the establishment of the Museo-
Biblioteca de Filipinas (Museum-Library of the Philippines), established by a royal order of the
Spanish government on August 12, 1887.[1][2] It opened on October 24, 1891 at
the Intendencia in Intramuros, then home of the Manila Mint (as the Casa de la Moneda), with
around 100 volumes and with both Julian Romero and Benito Perdiguero as director and archivist-
librarian, respectively.[1]
Romero resigned in 1893 and was briefly replaced by Tomas Torres of the Escuela de Artes y
Ofícios in Bacolor, Pampanga (now the Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University), who in
turn was replaced by Don Pedro A. Paterno on March 31, 1894. By that time, the library had moved
to a site in Quiapo near the present site of the Masjid Al-Dahab. Later on, Paterno published the first
issue of the Boletin del Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas (Bulletin of the Museum-Library of the
Philippines) on January 15, 1895.[1]
The Museo-Biblioteca was abolished upon the onset of the American colonization of the Philippines.
By the time of its abolition, the library held around 1,000 volumes and averaged around 25–30
visitors a day. The entire collection would later be transferred at Paterno's expense to his own
private library, of which some books would form the basis for the Filipiniana collection of subsequent
incarnations of the National Library.[1]
Establishment (1900–1941)[edit]

The Legislative Building on Padre Burgos Street in Ermita would serve as the National Library's home from
1928 to 1944.the present-day National Museum.
As the Philippine–American War died down and peace gradually returned to the Philippines,
Americans who had come to settle in the islands saw the need for a wholesome recreational outlet.
Recognizing this need, Mrs. Charles Greenleaf and several other American women organized the
American Circulating Library (ACL), dedicated in memory of American soldiers who died in the
Philippine–American War. The ACL opened on March 9, 1900 with 1,000 volumes donated by the
Red Cross Society of California and other American organizations.[1]By 1901, the ACL's collection
grew to 10,000 volumes, consisting mostly of American works of fiction, periodicals and newspapers.
The rapid expansion of the library proved to be such a strain on the resources of the American
Circulating Library Association of Manila, the organization running the ACL, that it was decided that
the library's entire collection should be donated to the government.[1]
The Philippine Commission formalized the acceptance of the ACL's collections on March 5, 1901
through Act No. 96,[3] today observed as the birthdate of both the National Library and the Philippine
public library system.[1] With the ACL now a Philippine government institution, a board of trustees and
three personnel, led by librarian Nelly Y. Egbert, were appointed by the colonial government. At the
same time, the library moved to Rosario Street (now Quintin Paredes Street) in Binondobefore its
expansion warranted its move up the street to the Hotel de Oriente on Plaza Calderón de la Barca in
1904. It was noted in the 1905 annual report of the Department of Public Instruction (the
current Department of Education) that the new location "was not exactly spacious but at least it was
comfortable and accessible by tramway from almost every part of the city".[1] At the same time, the
ACL, acting on its mandate to make its collections available to American servicemen stationed in the
Philippines, established five traveling libraries, serving various, if not unusual, clientele across the
islands.[1] In November 1905, Act No. 1407 placed the library under the Bureau of Education and
subsequently moved to its headquarters at the corner of Cabildo (now Muralla) and Recoletos
Streets in Intramuros, on which today the offices of the Manila Bulletin stand.[1]
On June 2, 1908, Act No. 1849 was passed, mandating the consolidation of all government libraries
in the Philippines into the ACL. Subsequently, Act No. 1935 was passed in 1909, renaming the ACL
the Philippine Library and turning it into an autonomous body governed by a five-member Library
Board. At the same time, the Act mandated the division of the library into four divisions: the law,
scientific, circulating and Filipiniana divisions.[1] The newly renamed library was headed by James
Alexander Robertson, an American scholar who, in collaboration with Emma Helen Blair, wrote The
Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, and recognized today as both the first director of the modern
National Library and the father of Philippine library science. Robertson would later abolish the
library's subscription fees for books in general circulation in 1914.[1]
Act No. 2572, passed on January 31, 1916, merged the Philippine Library with two other government
institutions: the Division of Archives, Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks (later to become
the National Archives, the Copyright Office of the National Library and the Intellectual Property
Office) and the Law Library of the Philippine Assembly, forming the Philippine Library and
Museum.[4] In addition, the Philippine Library and Museum was placed under the supervision of
the Department of Justice.[1] However, on December 7, 1928, Act No. 3477 was passed, splitting the
Philippine Library and Museum into the National Library and the National Museum (now the National
Museum of the Philippines).[4] The newly formed National Library was placed under the supervision
of the Philippine Assembly, subsequently moving to the Legislative Building on Padre Burgos Street
in Ermita. This arrangement continued with the convocation of the National Assembly at the dawn of
the Commonwealth era in 1935. However, supervision of the National Library would return to the
Department of Public Instruction in 1936.[1]
World War II (1941–1946)[edit]
The dawn of World War II and the subsequent invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese had no
significant impact on the National Library, with the institution still remaining open and the
government at the time making few significant changes to the library, such as the abolition of the
Research and Bibliography Division and the subsequent suspension of work on the
national bibliography [de] in 1941.[1] However, by late 1944, with the impending campaign of
combined American and Filipino forces to recapture the Philippines, Japanese forces stationed in
Manila began setting up fortifications in large buildings, including the Legislative Building. Despite
the occupation of the Legislative Building, the Japanese commanding officer permitted library
officials to vacate the premises within two weeks of their occupation, with the library subsequently
moving into the building housing the Philippine Normal School (now the Philippine Normal
University). Two weeks later, however, Japanese troops also moved to occupy that building as well,
with the same commanding officer giving library officials only until that af