Vasconcelos Library

Mexico City's Biblioteca Vasconcelos (Vasconcelos Library), also known as la Biblioteca Vasconcelos or la Vasconcelos and labeled by the press as the Megabiblioteca ("megalibrary"), is a library in the downtown area of Mexico City (Buenavista neighborhood, Cuauhtémoc borough). It was dedicated to José Vasconcelos, the philosopher and former presidential candidate and former president of the National Library of Mexico. The library is spread across 38,000 square metres (409,000 sq ft) and had an initial planned cost of 954 million pesos (roughly US$98 million). The Congress of Mexico proposed plans to reduce the budget of 2006 that included cuts for all three branches of government. National Action Party (PAN) presented an alternative budget that preserved funds for Enciclomedia and the Vasconcelos Library.