National Library of Spain
The National Library of Spain's website and catalog are excellent sources when looking for information about the Spanish Civil War. There are several special collections organized and run by the National Library, which are described in detail within this page. The website for the National Library of Spain is available in many different languages, including English and the different languages found in Spain; feel free to use it in English, as the information is just as complete as the Spanish.
The Library's catalog is, of course, an excellent place to start.
Biblioteca Nacional de España catalog
The interface is quite simple, with a search bar prominent in the middle of the page. Searches can be conducted by keyword, by subject, which will bring up an alphabetical list that matches the search terms, and also by exact word. The best way to search would probably be in Spanish, but the catalog has a number of English-language materials as well; conducting your search in English would result in a sizeable number of materials.
Searching Spain's National Library catalog would be helpful for a couple of reasons. It is a good way to identify credible and authentic sources, which may then be available in your home institution's library. If they are not available within reach, you will be able to identify the National Library of Spain as a site for InterLibrary Loan. Of course, using this catalog will also help improve your Spanish!
National Bibliography of Spain
Available through the National Library's website, the Bibliografia Española is the most authoritative source on publications within Spain. The online version linked above has bibliographic information dating from 2007 to the present. It is divided into sections: Monographs, Periodical publications, musical publications and cartographies. There is no real way to search the bibliography--the user is able to browse through links to lead to an entry. For example, you can browse monographs by subject, or within authors and titles. First, you must choose a year of the bibliography, then you can browse deeper into the available categories. The student looking for more recent literature about the topic of the Spanish Civil War will find this source very useful. Browsing by subject and delving into the History category might prove the best strategy. This source is also useful for verifying publication and bibliographic information about a book or periodical.
The UIUC library has paper copies of the Bibliografia Española from 1958-2006, when the National Library of Spain decided to stop printing their bibliography and started offering it online. There was a name change in the middle of the run, therefore there are two call numbers for the Monographic series of the Bibliografia Española:
Biblioteca Española (Madrid, Spain: 1958) Q.015.46 B473 --1958-1992
Biblioteca Española. Monografias. Q.015.46 B4731 --1994-2006
This would be a good source to look at to see what was published about the Spanish Civil War in the years after. This bibliography would show fiction and non-fiction publications, like histories, memoirs and materials from other disciplines that would have to do with Spanish Civil War.
Periodicals Collection
Another useful digital collection compiled by the National Library of Spain involves periodicals. The whole collection has a very wide scope--newspapers and periodicals from the 1600s have been digitized and are fully searchable! There are more than 1000 titles and more than 4 million pages included in this online digital library. The search interface allows for direct searching within the collection, but do not forget to narrow down the years of your search, if only interested in the Spanish Civil War. There is also the option of searching within a specific periodical title, if it is known, geographical region and, of course, year.
Posters from the Spanish Civil War
The digital library of the National Library of Spain has a large collection of posters from the Spanish Civil War. There are more than 500 posters and other visual artifacts from the war itself, all available to view for free. They are thoroughly cataloged on the Digital Library's website, and also within the library's OPAC. This collection would be helpful to those in search of primary sources of art or propaganda, as well as information about foreign involvement in the civil war.
Here is an example of the images you can find in the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica's collection of Spanish Civil War Posters
Another interesting collection of images the National Library holds is called Drawings of War Children. This is a very unique collection of primary sources; there are more than 1000 drawings by children living during the Civil War. Students interested in the psychological consequences and ramifications of the war on children would find this collection incredibly useful. These drawings serve as historical documentation of tragic events that occurred between and among friends and countrymen. It is a fascinating collection worth taking a look.
