The National Library, formally named Biblioteca Nacional de Brasília Leonel de Moura Brizola, after the Brazilian statesman, is located in the heart of the capital city of Brazil. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the 50's but it wasn't until 2008 that it was actually built.
What follows in a Google Translate version in English of the original Portuguese text in Wikipedia:
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"The architectural project of the National Library was originally conceived in the original plan of Brasília, signed by Lúcio Costa in the late 1950s of the last century, when the urban planner designed the federal capital with Oscar Niemeyer and other architects. The first attempts at its effective creation date back to Decree No. 927-A, of April 27, 1962, signed by Prime Minister Tancredo Neves, together with the Ministry of Education and Culture, which created a commission to study measures necessary for the creation, organization and installation of the National Library, located in Rio de Janeiro. The aforementioned decree states, in its first lines, the impossibility of the Capital of the Republic being able to do without the services of a national library.
In February 1988, Decree No. 95,713 established the Federal Cultural Complex Commission of the Capital of the Republic to study the measures necessary for the implementation and operation of the Cultural Complex that would include the Library.
Proposal and construction
After a long interval of more than 40 years after the first decree, on the initiative of the Federal District Government, the process of effective construction of the cultural complex began and the technical committee was created to prepare the organizational structure of a new library, the National Library of Brasília, as a consequence of the decision to keep the National Library of Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The work of this commission resulted in a first concrete proposal for the library located in the Cultural Complex of the Republic, outlining its principles, objectives, the characteristics of its collection and, among other things, its mission. The text of this first proposal points to the vocation of being an integrating library and a center for radiating exemplary concepts and solutions for the entire nation. As the document states, it must also be established as a reference center for the country's culture, meeting the demands of contemporary citizens, without failing to offer the local community activities to make the most of their leisure time.
The building of the National Library of Brasília was handed over to the population at the end of 2006, however, without the appropriate conditions for its operation. The project required a planning and installation process that culminated in the opening to the public on December 12, 2008.
In the period between the handover of the National Library of Brasília building to the population (2006) and its opening to the public (2008), the Intergovernmental Commission of the Cultural Complex of the Republic was created by means of Decree No. 27,796, of March 20, 2007, which was responsible for discussing and presenting proposals regarding the public use programming of the National Museum and the National Library of Brasília.
The implementation of the National Library of Brasília was carried out through an agreement with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), through the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT) and the National Research Network (RNP), in close collaboration with the management body of the BNB, supported by the Secretariat of State for Culture of the Federal District (SeCult DF).