Royal Danish Library
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The Black Diamond building, viewed from the southeast
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| Country | Denmark |
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| Type | National library, university library |
| Scope | National Library of Denmark - Main library of the University of Copenhagen - Danish Museum of Books and Printing, National Museum of Photography, Museum of Danish Cartoon Art. |
| Established | 1648 (University Library founded 1482) |
| Reference to legal mandate | No special law. The obligations of the library are stated in the annual state budget |
| Location | Copenhagen |
| Collection | |
| Size | 35.4M items. Digital collections: c. 791TB |
| Legal deposit | Since 1697 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Mr. Erland Kolding Nielsen, director general (since 1986) |
| Staff | 591 persons, 430 Full-time equivalent |
| Website | http://www.kb.dk/en/index.html |
The Royal Library (Danish: Det Kongelige Bibliotek) in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the national library of Denmark and the university library of the University of Copenhagen. It is the largest library in the Nordic countries.
It contains numerous historical treasures, and a copy of all works printed in Denmark since the 17th century are deposited there. Thanks to extensive donations in the past, the library holds nearly all known Danish printed works back to and including the first Danish book, printed in 1482.
The library was founded in 1648 by King Frederik III, who contributed a comprehensive collection of European works. It was opened to the public in 1793. In 1989, it was merged with the prestigious Copenhagen University Library (founded in 1482) (UB1). In 2005, it was merged with the Danish National Library for Science and Medicine (UB2), now the Faculty Library of Natural and Health Sciences. The official name of the organization as of 1 January 2006 is The Royal Library, the National Library of Denmark and the Copenhagen University Library. In 2008, the Danish Folklore Archive was merged with the Royal Library. It is open to anyone above the age of 18 with a genuine need to use the collections. Special rules apply for use of rare and valuable items.
Books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets and corporate publications, manuscripts and archives, maps, prints and photographs, music scores, documentation of folkways and popular traditions, four annual electronic copies of the Danish Internet by legal deposit. Physical collections size: 35,400,000 items (6,400,000 books and journals, 20,000,000 prints and photographs, 7,900,000 pamphlets and corporate publications, 1,100,000 other materials). Digital collections: 791,000 Gigabyte (GB) (676,000 GB legal deposit, 116,000 GB retrodigitizied collections).
Today, The Royal Library has five sites: The main library at Slotsholmen, Copenhagen harbour (in the Black Diamond), covering all subjects and special collections; one at Nørre Alle, Faculty Library of Natural and Health Sciences; one at Gothersgade, central Copenhagen, Faculty Library of Social Sciences; one at Amager, Faculty Library of Humanities; and, one in Studiestræde, central Copenhagen, The Faculty of Law Library. The annual circulation is 11,400,000 loans (10,900,000 of these are electronic loans). The members are 32,196 active users. The annual budget: 394M Danish Kroner (58M US Dollars), including building expenses and maintenance.
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