Alicia Girón García

Alicia Girón García (1938 – 22 February 2020) was a Spanish librarian. She began working in the Madrid public library system in 1969 where she helped plan expansion and digitisation and eventually became its director. From 1983 Girón was deputy director-general of libraries at the Ministry of Culture helping to draft a law mandating library services in settlements with more than 5,000 inhabitants. She later joined the Biblioteca Nacional de España (the national library of Spain), heading its bibliographic processing department and launching a programme to digitise its collection. Girón was appointed director of the library on 24 May 1990, the first woman to hold the position. She remained in post until 9 January 1992, overseeing the reformation of the library as an independent organisation and establishing an interlibrary loan system. Girón later headed the Biblioteca Nacional de Préstamo (national lending library) and the National Newspaper Library before joining the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as director of libraries in 1995. She remained in post until 2008.

Early career Girón was born in 1938. Girón initially worked in the Madrid public library system, where she was involved in planning the expansion of library services in the city. In the 1980s she helped to plan a digitisation plan for the Madrid libraries. She was appointed director of the libraries at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1995 and held this position until 2008. During this time she published numerous research papers and translations. Girón also chaired the Association of Friends of the Library of Alexandria, a UNESCO project with the government of Egypt, and sat on the information and documentation working group of the Spanish national commission for UNESCO. Girón died on 22 February 2020.