Commissions of the Junta. The collections continued to grow, including both lawrelated publications and literary works.
In 1982, the Library began the first studies to automate legislative information, which became the Law DataBase. Since 1985, this system would provide important information for the task of lawmaking. At the same time, the Library undertook the creation of its bibliographic database by participating in a National Network built on the OCLC model, with its principal node and management initiative, in the National Library.
The automation of the legal database allowed the Library of the National Congress to include information quality control checks, as well as amendments to legal texts, for on-line services.
The Rare and Valuable Book Section collects famous works from Chilean authors, such as first editions, pamphlets, the first edition of the first Chilean newspaper, La Aurora de Chile, (1812), on the basis of donations from historians, parliamentarians and authors who have enriched the Library and provided resources for specialized researchers on different subjects.
With the return of democracy in 1990, the Library of the National Congress entered into a profound cycle of change to respond to the new situation of the country and the world. By the end of the Twentieth Century, information and communication technologies had become part of the everyday lives of citizens and nations, providing more accessible, widely distributed and userfriendly tools for information management. With the task of restoring democracy in hand, Chilean political and social leaders undertook the long road to construct social consensus, after a period of acute polarization. The modernization of the State became imperative.
The modernization process of the Chilean Congress began in 1990, endorsed by the recently elected congressional authorities: Senator Gabriel Valdes Subercaseux, President of the Senate,
