The National Library is the state library of Buenos Aires around 1966–1967, still on México Street and directed by Jorge Luis Borges. It is entered only by invitation and holds catalogued esoteric material.
| Type | Institution |
| Spanish entry | Biblioteca Nacional |
Description
The library is “still on México Street”; the Recoleta seat “is being built”. Borges “remains in office”. There is no second national library.
Access. The invitation alone suffices: “There are books. You can reach them with invitations. You get in with just the invitation.” No credential or payment is mentioned.
Catalog. Each book has a card with a code such as BN 1016, on which withdrawal and return dates are entered. A book can be marked “absent”: one has been “absent since ‘26, the year 26, 1926”, never returned, and the card still says so decades later.
Esoteric holdings. Asked where esoteric studies can be found, people answer “at the National Library”.
Other libraries
- The library of the hermetic order of the silver dawn: “a good collection of scientific and philosophical books, above all occult images, theosophy”, shared among initiates.
- The UBA library, recorded only as existing.
- A household library “with authorized books; she’s a lady who reads”; who authorizes them is not stated.
Conflicting accounts
- Twice it is “on México Street”; a third phrase, “still in México”, can be read as the street or the country.
Open questions
- How are invitations obtained?
- Which book has been absent since 1926, and who took it?
- Do the esoteric titles form a separate collection?
- The building’s interior and holdings are not described.