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| Origin of the Teacher's National Library |
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| Period 1870 - 1898 |
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 During the presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento when Nicolás Avellaneda was Minister of Justice and Public Instruction, decree nº 7779 was released. This decree states“ The formation of a new office which is established by the Law of Budget in the Department of Public Instruction, along with the designation of Libraries and Book Delivery”. Through the decree Clodomiro Quiroga is appointed director. The Library was settled in an office within the Ministry of Justice in the Government Palace. In those days the only task the office was in charge of was to run the exchange and dispatch of subscriptions and official publications. |
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| 1873 |
| The Director was promoted to Subsecretary in the Ministry of Public Development. He was substituted by Miguel Sorondo. Scarce information is registered in institutional documents. |
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| 1875 |
| In those years the Library was moved to the “Altos” (“Hights”) of the House on the corner of Defensa ST and Alsina St. The Director, Julio Belín, grandson to Domingo F. Sarmiento, is in charge of the first moving of the Library and reports to the Minister “having concluded the new installations". |
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| 1876 |
| Documents from those years show the impressions of the Minister of Public Education about the library.He pointed out that “the library satisfies the needs of public interests . It has increased considerably the number of issues through profitable exchanges. Also, the fact of being open all day, even through some ours during the night, covers a gap left empty by other Libraries”. |
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| 1877 |
| The Library is settled on 90th Bolivar St with the purpose of improving its organization. Its new director was Augusto Belín, brother to the former director. For this reason, his designation was never made official., since the scrupuluos Minister Leguizamón , feared that the family bond they had would blur the control of public management. |
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| 1878 |
| Augusto Belín resigned and José A. Olmos was appointed in the position. The new interim director was totally involved in his task and used to walk around the Reading Room to supervise the personnel and watch the attending public.A decree from October 30 th cracked down all the projects the Library had, reducing its responsibilities only to the exchange, distribution and purchase of publications and books required by the Bibliotecas Populares. Soon after José Olmos resigned and the Library was immediately closed. After the closedown, Felipe Basavilbaso was appointed new director. |
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| 1879 |
| The Director was substituted by Patricio Basavilbaso.During his office neither functions nor competences of the Institution were modified. |
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| 1881 |
| The Consejo Nacional de Educación (National Council of Education) issued a decree through which all existing books should be deposited in the Library of San Nicolás. Pedro Quiroga was appointed director for some months being Enrique Navarro Viola his successor . Benjamín Zorrilla, when assuming the presidency of the Comisión Nacional de Educación (National Comission of Education), decided to reestablish the activities of the Library and Navarro Viola proceeded to carry out an inventory of the existent assets. |
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| 1883 |
| Mariano Olivares was chosen new director of the library. During this period B. Zorrilla started to design the formation of the Pedagogical Library with the books proceeding from the frustrated Sarmientinian Library. |
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| 1884 |
| In July 1884 the Law of Common Education 1420 was sanctioned. It stipulated the creation of a new Pedagogical Library and the pubblication of a magazine called "El Monitor de la Educación Común" destined to school teachers. The new director was Rodolfo Araujo Muñoz. |
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| 1885 |
 Felipe Moreira was appointed director for a few months being replaced by Baldman F. Dobranich. The building on the corner of Talcahuano and Viamonte, currently public school Nicolás Avellaneda, held the new Library. The Pedagogical Museum and the distribution of "El Monitor de la Educación Común" were added to the competentes of the Library. |
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| 1888 |
| Being Fernando D. Guerrico in office, the Library is opened to the public announcing that all teachers were invited to visit i ton a frequent base. A year later, F. D. Guerrico develops an alphabetical catalogue of authors which is distributed to educators along with the magazine "El Monitor".The Library continued being a quite precarious dependency carrying its accounting on a simple notebook. Moreover, books were piled up in a modest warehouse. Within this atmosphere Tomás A. Guido gets to office. |
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| 1895 |
| Juan M. de Vedia reaches both, the direction of the Library and the magazine "El Monitor de la Educación Común" as well. |
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| 1898 |
| During his mandate the Library is moved to its definite location on Rodríguez Peña 935 . This long yearned building was occupied by the Court of Justice since 1889. The inventories carried out during this period were harshly criticized afterwards since specific rules were not applied. Users registers were not carried until 1892 ,therefore, it is not possible to know what the repercussion was in the educational realm. |
