The Central Library of the Department is located at Number 9, Calle Alcalá.
It opened its doors in the mid-nineteenth century, although it has books dating back to the sixteenth century, as well as around 200 manuscripts.
Its present collection has in the region of 82,000 books.
The Library’s modern facilities were inaugurated on 13 November 2002. The work carried out at the time allowed the original features of one of the Ministry’s courtyards to be recovered as far as possible, so maintaining a curious translucent, 7-mm thick steel and glass laminate dome.
Users can access the following services via the Internet:
The Ministry’s Central Library, which offers the following services:
- A virtual walk through the Ministry’s Central Library.
- Consult more than 20,000 digitalised catalogued files, although at present the figure is rising at a rate of 500 a day.
- Access a completely virtual Historical Collection Room that allows users to consult the contents of its documents.
- Consult the tables of contents and contents of some of its publications.
- The Ministry also has other specialised Libraries, including that of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
- Reference information service.