Milagros del Corral Beltrán
National Library of Spain
Born in Madrid, Spain (1945), PhD in Philosophy and Humanities (Complutense University of Madrid and State Librarian. Along her career she has been Deputy-Director of the Complutense University Library (Madrid) Deputy-Director General for Libraries (both at the Ministry of Culture of Spain, Chairperson of WIPOS´s Intergovernmental Committee of the Berne Convention (1979-1981) and one of the 6 international experts who advised the U.S. Congress to adhere to WIPO´s Berne Convention. In the private sector she was Secretary-General of the Federation of Spanish Publishers (1983-1990). She joined UNESCO in 1990 as Director of the Book and Copyright Division ending her international career as UNESCO´s Deputy-Assistant Director General for Culture. Since September 2007 she is the Director General of the National Library of Spain where she started a major digitization programme (10 million euros) in partnership with Telefonica.
Her areas of expertise are book and cultural industries, publishing (printed and electronic) copyright and new technologies. She is Board Member of several international Foundations, has lectured in the five continents, and is the author of over 50 professional publications some of which translated into 8 languages. Mrs. del Corral has been the first woman to be decorated as Comendador de la Orden del Mérito Civil by H.M. Juan Carlos I of Spain in 1980.
Presentation: Biblioteca Digital Hispanica": bridge between Europe and Latin America
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Abstract: This presentation introduces the National Library of Spain and outlines its major digital project, namely the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (BDH) also accessible through Europeana. By describing its selection, content and functionalities, the presentation underlines the promising results of this one-year old project, made possible as a result of an ambitious public/private partnership with Telefonica. The presentation also refers to some on-going new developments such as the creation of an experimental platform of digitized copyright protected books, in joint-venture with the Federation of Spanish Publishers for its inclusion in the BDH, the Digital Hemeroteca, and the imminent start of "printing on demand" of BDH´s resources as a value-added service for users to be launched next April for the first time by a European National Library.