El Camino de Santiago

• Location
• Description
• Collection
• Bibliography
• Director
• Opening hours
• Further information

Fundación Sancho el Sabio
Portal de Betoño 23
01013 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava

The Sancho el Sabio Library began to operate in 1955 promoted by the Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Vitoria. Holdings bequeathed by Antonio Odriozola´s Library were the core of its first collections.

Since its inception it aims to collect, manage, develop and preserve information on Basque culture: old printed books and cartographic items since the 16th-century, manuscripts since the 14th-century, prints and drawings since the 19th-century and other materials related to information and communication technologies.

The Biblioteca Sancho el Sabio covers the territories of Euskadi (Basque Country), Navarra and the French Basque Region, part of the Département des Pyrénées Atlantiques.

In 1991 the Library was transferred to its new headquarters at the Palacio Zulueta, that was built with the financial support of Alfredo Zulueta at the beginning of the 20th- century.

Collections include:

• Monographs: a very significant part of the Library´s collections, monographs include an extensive range of materials, as first editions of Basque Literature classics, legal issues and regulations (Royal and Administrative Acts, title deeds, charters of privilege, grants, warrants), History … and contemporary holdings printed recently in the Basque Country.
• Digitisation of nearly the whole collection has been accomplished.
• Serial titles and current periodicals: including basque historical journals, newspapers and many titles that reflect the vitality of basque printing and publishing in recent years. Among them, we should emphasize the significant numbers of fanzines part of this collection. Newspapers have been digitised, as well as journals abstracts.
• Cartographic materials: maps and atlases from XVIth century to the present.
• Prints: Posters covering a vast range of subjects in the Humanities, Bullfighting, Politics, etc.
• Photographs present a wealth of materials, depicting Royal Visits, “Carlismo”, History of Civil Engineering etc.
• Once researchers have complied with the arrangements concerning reproductions of these materials, they can be supplied with a copy of the photographs they are interested in. Positive copies of the archives are available on request.
• As relatively inaccessible Family Archives have been classified, catalogued and digitised, scholars will find ample material to support their researchs.
• Other collections: pamphlets, brochures, leaflets, playbills, programs, broadsides and many other documents related to elections, poliltical parties, corporations etc.

Machine readable cataloguing All catalogues, containing more than 150.000 records on-line, are automated:

• Monographs
• Serial titles
• Books and Journals, articles and reviews
• Cartographic Items
• Prints and drawings
• Family archives

Digital databases

• Nearly all heritage items have been digitised.
• Journals abstracts: Wholly accessible online.

Current Periodicals

• Under the terms of a partnership and collaboration programme , the library is cooperating with other institutions to digitise current periodicals printed in the Basque country and Navarre. This project includes 12 newspapers.

• Barrios, E. “Fundación Sancho el Sabio: acercar la cultura vasca”. : “Computing España”, 1995, n. 30, p. 43-44.
• Gómez Pérez, Carmen. “La digitalización en la Fundación Sancho el Sabio”. : “Educación y biblioteca”, 1997, n. 80, p. 42-47.
• Gómez Pérez, Carmen. “Fuentes metodológicas para el estudio de los vascos: la Fundación Sancho el Sabio”. “Los vascos en las regiones de México, siglos XVI a XX”. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma, 1996, t. 3, p. 345-370.
• Gómez Pérez, Carmen. “Fundación Sancho el Sabio”. En : “RIEV, revista internacional de estudios Vascos”, 1995, t. 40, n. 1, p. 179-194.
• Gómez Pérez, Carmen. “Fundación Sancho el Sabio”. En “Sancho el Sabio, revista de cultura e investigación vasca”, 1991, n. 1, p. 275-286.
• Martínez Díaz de Zugazúa, Charo. “Fanzines, prensa alternativa y otras publicaciones underground de la Fundación Sancho el Sabio”. En “Sancho el Sabio, revista de cultura e investigación vasca”, 1998, n. 9, p. 161-178.
• “Noticias”. : “Sancho el Sabio, revista de cultura e investigación vasca”, 2000, n. 12, p. 237-240.
• “El palacio Zulueta, nueva casa para la Fundación Sancho el Sabio”. : “Boletín de información municipal”. Vitoria, 1991, n. 77, p. 67.
• Pastor, Carmen. “Fondos documentales antiguos, una especie en peligro de extinción: la Fundación Sancho el Sabio digitaliza los originales para su conservación”. :“Computerworld”, suplemento al n. 815.
• Zubiaga Valdivieso, Jesús Manuel; Martínez Díaz de Zugazúa, Rosario. “El acceso a ala información en soporte digital en la Fundación Sancho el Sabio (Vitoria-Gasteiz)”. : “VII Jornadas Españolas de Documentación Automatizada”, 2000, p. 173-177.
• Artículos varios en Hemeroteca local.

Carmen Gómez Pérez

Monday to Friday: 10:15 to 13:45 and 16:15 to 19:15.
In August: 8:15 to 14:45.

Contact person: Charo Martinez
Telephone: 00 34 945-253932
Fax: 00 34 945-250219
E-mail: fs-inv@fsancho-sabio.es
Website: http://www.fsancho-sabio.es/