The library is named after the lawyer and businessman Luis Angel Arango, the general director (Governor) of the "Banco de la Republica" in Colombia from 1947 to 1957, and a champion of culture and literature for all.

It centralizes the "digital collection" and the "Virtual Library" (Biblioteca Virtual del Banco de la República) a growing repository of digitized content from the network of libraries of the Banco de la República.

The main entrance features a bronze statue of Athena or Minerva, Greek goddess of wisdom, the arts, trade and defense.

Consequently, the bank conditioned a room then with only 25 people seating capacity and limited viewing time (open then from 2:00pm to 4:30pm Monday through Friday) to the general public.

[6] After the bank moved its headquarters to a new building, General Director, Luis Ángel Arango, sought to relocate the library.

The Old Mint House (Casa de la Moneda) was nearly destroyed in the Bogotazo riots and it was decided that the new expanded location of the library would be the remodeled and reconditioned building.

For the new expanded building of the library the architect firm was Esguerra Saenz Urdaneta Samper in three separate expansions.

[7] Currently the Virtual Library has 80,000 texts, audio and video with 860 books, 4,700 magazine articles, 815 biographies and a considerable number of interactive pages for children and of art related topics.