The Brazilian National Library's (BN) Heritage of General Works gathers books, theses, and brochures, among others, from the 18th century to the current days, with an estimated total of about two million pieces. It occupies approximately 18 linear Km of shelves and its works are stored in the Headquarters and in the Annex. It concentrates the biggest amount of BN researchers, attending an average of 2 thousand for month.
Books that arrive in compliance with the Legal Deposit Law compose the heritage. This material is technically processed by a specialized team of the National Library and sent to be located in the book warehouse, which occupies six floors of the Headquarters.
In General Works, the researcher finds a multidisciplinary heritage that includes Brazilian and foreign literature, law books, didactic books, youth literature, religion, sciences, environment, physics, medicine, astrology, history, geography, computer science, botany and many others. The works in the heritage are available for consultation by researchers, but they cannot be loaned under any circumstances. Yet, its reproduction is conditional on the observance of the Copyrights Law (Law nº 9,610, of 19th, February 1998) and on the state of conservation of each one.