Nasjonalbiblioteket Digital Collections (National Library of Norway)

Overview

The National Library of Norway (Norwegian: Nasjonalbiblioteket) is Norway's national library, with a principal mandate to preserve the past for the future. Its digital collections portal at nb.no provides public access to a large and growing proportion of its holdings in digitized and born-digital form. The library maintains physical sites in Oslo and in Mo i Rana, where vast underground storage facilities preserve both physical and digitized materials.

History and Founding

The National Library of Norway was formally established in 1989, when a legal deposit repository was created in Rana (Mo i Rana) in northern Norway. Prior to this, the University of Oslo Library had fulfilled many national library functions since 1813. In 1999, national library tasks were consolidated within a newly established Oslo branch, and the Oslo building was renovated between 1999 and 2005. On 15 August 2005—exactly 100 years after Norway dissolved its union with Sweden—the national library fully reopened in its renovated Oslo premises. Digitization of the entire collection began in 2006. In October 2012, the online reading service Bokhylla ("The Bookshelf") launched as a permanent service providing access to Norwegian books published before 2000.

Collections and Holdings

The National Library's collection encompasses books, magazines, music, film, radio and television programmes, photographs, theatre materials, maps, posters, newspapers, handicraft collections, and special book collections. The Oslo site, in a 1914 building at Solli plass, hosts exhibitions, concerts, talks, and reading rooms open to the public. The Mo i Rana site stores materials in climate-controlled mountain halls for long-term preservation and serves as the primary digitization center for archival and museum materials from across Norway.

The Map Centre in Oslo holds the world's most extensive collection of printed maps of Norway, the Nordic countries, and the High North, with items dating from 1482 to the late 19th century.

Notable Materials Related to Journalism and Media

The digital collections include extensive holdings of digitized Norwegian newspapers from the 17th century to the present. The library has partnerships with Norwegian newspaper publishers to digitize and share their historical archives. Radio and television broadcasts are deposited under the Legal Deposit Act and are accessible on library premises. Notable journalism-related items include the periodical Nylænde (Norwegian Association for Women's Rights), early news broadcasts, and historical newspaper runs.

Digital Access

The online library at nb.no/search provides access to digitized books, periodicals, newspapers, maps, photographs, manuscripts, and audio-visual materials. Items in the public domain are freely accessible worldwide. Copyright-protected materials are accessible to users with Norwegian IP addresses or via special application for overseas users. Academic staff and students in Norway can also access the digital library through institutional login. Born-digital materials such as digital newspaper editions are received and archived through automated reception pipelines. The library also maintains Språkbanken (the Norwegian Language Bank), a collection of digitized linguistic resources used in language technology research.