The European Library

The foundation of the National Library of Greece is related to the first Governor of the independent Greek nation, Ioannis Kapodistrias, who founded it on the island of Aegina, the first capital of Greece, as a part of a big Orphanage in 1829. This Orphanage included a Central School, the National Museum, the National Printing House and a "Deposit of books", which developed into a "Public Library" by decree in 1832. In 1834, the library was moved to Athens and functioned as the first public library of Greece. In 1838, one year after the foundation of the National University of Athens, its library was founded and enriched by gifts of Greeks and philhellenes. In 1842, the two libraries, the public and the university, joined together administratively and were installed in the new building of the University. In 1866, by royal decree, the two libraries were merged in a single library, the National Library of Greece. The National Library was hosted to the University of Athens from 1842 to 1903. In 1903, the National Library of Greece was moved to a new building in which is still located.

The building of the National Library of Greece, entirely in marble, was designed by the Danish architect Th. Hansen and was built under the supervision of Ernst Ziller. The building of the National Library of Greece with the ones of the National University of Athens and the Academy of Athens constitute, according, to the expression of their architect Th. Hansen, the Athenian Trilogy.

The National Library of Greece is organized, according to an old law of 1943, which is still valid, as follows:

• Department of Cataloging, in which the Office of the National Bibliography belongs
• Department of Acquisition, in which the Office of ISBN, ISSN and ISMN belongs
• Department of Manuscripts
• Department of Reading Rooms
• Department of Secretariat
• Department of Automation and Documentation

Apart from the above departments, a Laboratory of Conservation and Microfilming has been established.

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A legal deposit system ensures the fullest possible collection of publications published in Greece. The collections of the National Library of Greece consist of about 1.000.000 titles and more than 1.500.000 volumes of books, newspapers, serials, maps etc. Among the collections of the National Library of Greece, there are 149 incunabula, which is the biggest collection of incunabula in Greece. To the above number must be added a rich collection of 4.500 manuscripts, archives of personalities etc. There is also a collection of microfilms of books, newspapers and manuscripts.

The collection of the National Library of Greece are classified according to an old classification System, Hallische System. Cataloguing is based on the Anglo American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed. Authority files subject headings, personal names, etc. based on the LC Subject Headings are used. UNIMARC is used as an internal and exchange bibliographic and authorities format. For the needs of the Greek National Bibliography is used Dewey Decimal Classification system.