[4] The collection currently includes more than 7,000,000 printed volumes, 2,000 incunabula, 25,000 cinquecentine (16th century books), 8,000 manuscripts, 10,000 drawings, 20,000 maps, and 1,342,154 brochures.

The BNCR launched several digitization projects with the purpose of enhancing its own collections and make them available to an increasing number of readers.

The Library supports cultural promotion and preservation through an extensive programme of events which includes lectures, video projections, concerts, art exhibitions and guided tours.

With the Unification of Italy and the Capture of Rome in 1870, ending the Catholic Church's Temporal Power, this library was taken over by the new Kingdom of Italy and made into the core of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, inaugurated on 14 March 1876 - to which enormous additional material was subsequently added.

[4] The current building was designed by architects Massimo Castellazzi, Tullio Dell'Anese and Annibale Vitellozzi and opened in January 1975.