National Library of Poland

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National Library
Biblioteka Narodowa
National Library of Poland building in Mokotów Field, Warsaw
52°12′52″N 21°00′16″E / 52.21444°N 21.00444°E / 52.21444; 21.00444
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Type	National library
Established	August 8, 1747 (277 years ago) (1747-08-08) as Załuski Library February 24, 1928 (96 years ago) (1928-02-24) as National Library
Collection
Size	10,431,867 (as of December 31, 2023)[1]
Legal deposit	Yes
Other information
Director	Tomasz Makowski
Website	www.bn.org.pl/en

The National Library (Polish: Biblioteka Narodowa, BN) is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. The main seat of the National Library is located in Ochota district of Warsaw, adjacent to the Mokotów Field. It is one of the oldest cultural institutions in Poland, operating in 1747–1795 as Załuski Library, reactivated in 1928.^[2]

The library collects books, journals, electronic and audiovisual publications published in the territory of Poland, as well as Polonica published abroad. It is the most important humanities research library, the main archive of Polish writing and the state centre of bibliographic information about books. It also plays a significant role as a research facility and is an important methodological center for other Polish libraries.

The National Library was one of the first libraries in Europe that fulfilled the tasks of a modern national library in developing collections covering the entire body of Polish literature and making available to the public.^[3]

Literature and making those works accessible to the public receives a copy of every book published in Poland as legal deposit. The Jagiellonian Library is the only other library in Poland to have a national library status.