The Plenary Session of the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain approves the 2025 activity report, the 2026-28 Strategic Plan and the 2026 Annual Action Plan

On 18 June, a plenary meeting of the Royal Board of Trustees of the National Library of Spain (Real Patronato de la BNE) addressed, amongst other matters, the 2025 Annual Report, progress on the 2021–2025 Strategic Plan, and the presentation of the institution’s roadmap for the coming years, as set out in both the 2026–2028 Strategic Plan and the 2026 Annual Action Plan.

The director of the National Library of Spain (BNE), Óscar Arroyo , stated that the 2026-2028 Strategic Plan “aims to make the organization more modern and robust, with renovated and expanded physical facilities that will enable it to offer new services or adapt existing ones to new needs and new audiences,” so that over the next three years the innovative projects developed and the technical services offered by the BNE ” will, if possible, become an even greater benchmark for the library sector in Spain and across the Ibero-American region”.

The Board of Trustees was also informed of the Ministry of Culture’s acquisition of a building to serve as the BNE’s third headquarters, as announced by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, earlier this week.

The acquisition of this new BNE site in Tres Cantos (Madrid) “is the most significant development for the organisation so far this century, given the security it will provide for the collections to come in the coming decades”, said Óscar Arroyo. The building, with a floor area of over 6,800 m² and situated on a plot of over 10,000 m², will be used for the storage and conservation of documentary collections, particularly digitised periodicals, in accordance with the Spanish National Library’s mandate to safeguard the legal deposit of publications.

The president of the Royal Board of Trustees, Daniel Fernández , summarized the exhibitions held in 2025 and previewed some planned for this year and next. He also welcomed the new members appointed by the Autonomous Communities: Ana Vanesa Gutiérrez, Regional Minister of Culture, Language Policy, and Sport of the Principality of Asturias, and María del Mar Sánchez, Secretary General of Historical and Documentary Heritage of the Regional Government of Andalusia. This year, José López Campos, Regional Minister of Culture, Language, and Youth of the Regional Government of Galicia, has also joined as a new member.

Activity Report 2025

Among the actions carried out in 2025, the director of the BNE highlighted the pilot project for the digitization and emulation of video games, which has involved the digitization of 100 video games on 8 and 16 bit cassettes and an emulation process of the access environment to these contents, so that they can be both preserved and accessible from the BNE as they were in their original environment of the 1980s.

He also mentioned the Spanish Web Archive and the Legal Deposit of Online Publications as two of the most important projects currently underway at the National Library of Spain (BNE). As a result of these efforts, in 2025 the number of preprints received increased by 170% compared to the previous year, exceeding 30,000 deposits.

Strategic Plan 2026-2028 and Annual Action Plan 2026

The National Library of Spain’s (BNE) new strategic planning cycle for the three-year period 2026–2028 proposes comprehensive measures to adapt the institution to the context of the next decade. The Plan has five strategic pillars (Infrastructure, Collections, Services, Human Resources, and Communication and Institutional Relations), with 39 general objectives associated with these pillars. The first objectives will be implemented in the 2026 Annual Action Plan.

Within the framework of the Infrastructure pillar, changes will be made to five areas of the library, including the creation of a new multipurpose activity room and the redesign of the BNE’s workshop space. In addition, the bookstore will be renovated and relocated to a spacious and bright area with direct access to the garden. Finally, a new space will be designed to showcase the personal archives of important authors, explain how the BNE manages them, and encourage donations of this type of cultural heritage.

Within the Collections section, among the actions planned for 2026 related to the services of the National Library of Spain (BNE), the service providing access to digital collections from the conservation centers of the Autonomous Communities stands out. This initiative means, in practice and following the necessary agreements with the Autonomous Communities and copyright management organizations, making it possible to provide citizens with an access point to the BNE’s digital collections in every province of Spain.

Within the Services axis, the Strategic Plan 2026-28 places special emphasis on expanding the scope of cultural and exhibition activities, not only in terms of their thematic diversity, but also in collaboration with other institutions that allow the cultural action of the organization to be developed beyond the physical spaces of the BNE.

In addition, he announced a broad and comprehensive program that the BNE has prepared to mark the centenary of the Generation of ’27, with up to five exhibitions and dozens of complementary activities throughout the coming year.