The Austrian National Library had chronically suffered from a shortage of space ever since its times as a court library. Ideas for a new building or plans for a possible fusion with the University Library were dismissed.
For the user area in particular, a major improvement of the spatial setting was brought about in 1966, when the Main Reading Room and the Magazines Reading Room opened at the Neue Burg, which had previously housed an orthopaedic hospital. With 200 seats in the Main Reading Room and 60 seats in the Magazines Reading Room, plus a spacious catalogue area, the library’s services for users were thus substantially upgraded.