National Library of Peru, National library in San Borja district, Lima, Peru

The National Library of Peru's San Borja headquarters, designed by architect Franco Vella, is a large flat-roofed building with a grey concrete upper facade, a narrow red band along the roofline, and a lower section of white horizontal slabs alternating with dark reflective glass. It opened on 27 March 2006 and won the Golden Hexagon at the XII Biennial of Architecture of Peru that year.

Founded on 28 August 1821 by José de San Martín, the library opened with some 11,000 books confiscated from the Jesuits. Chilean troops occupying Lima in 1881 took much of the collection; Ricardo Palma, named director in 1883, recovered books house to house and saw 30,000 returned in 1884. A fire destroyed the building on 10 May 1943, and Jorge Basadre rebuilt it, founding the National School of Librarians in 1944.

The library's name honours José de San Martín, who founded it in 1821 and donated some 700 books; Bernardo de Monteagudo added his personal library. Ricardo Palma, director from 1883, gathered books house to house after the War of the Pacific and was nicknamed "el bibliotecario mendigo", the beggar librarian.

The library has two public branches: the original building on Avenida Abancay in Lima District and the modern one on Avenida de la Poesía in San Borja, reached via Avenida Javier Prado. It is a non-circulating library, so works are consulted on site. Since 2020 a reading service by phone has been offered, sparing readers a trip to either branch.

Ricardo Palma, named director in 1883, found barely 700 books left and went door to door collecting donations, earning the nickname "el bibliotecario mendigo". In 2007, 3,778 books taken during the War of the Pacific were returned from Chile.