Nasjonalbiblioteket Nettbiblioteket (National Library of Norway Online Library)

Overview

The National Library of Norway's Net Library (Norwegian: Nettbiblioteket) is the online digital library portal of the Nasjonalbiblioteket (National Library of Norway), accessible at nb.no/search. It provides integrated search and access to the library's digitized and born-digital collections, enabling users to read books, newspapers, periodicals, and other materials online.

History and Development

Digitization of the National Library's collections began in earnest in 2006, with a stated goal of digitizing the entire collection. In October 2012, the Bokhylla ("The Bookshelf") service launched at bokhylla.no, initially offering 104,000 Norwegian books published before 2000. The online library was subsequently integrated into the main nb.no platform under the Nettbiblioteket brand, which now provides unified access to the full range of digitized materials. The Bokhylla service was included within the expanded search and access portal at nb.no/search.

Collections and Access

The Nettbiblioteket provides access to books, periodicals, newspapers, photographs, maps, music, films, and other materials from the National Library's holdings. Public domain materials are freely accessible from anywhere in the world. Copyright-protected materials published in Norway up to 2005 may be accessed by users outside Norway through a special application process. Users in Norway can access a broader range of copyright-protected content via Norwegian IP addresses or institutional login. Academic staff and students in Norway access the service through their institutional Feide credentials. Users in-library have access to the complete digital collection including copyright-restricted materials.

Notable Features

The platform supports full-text search across digitized newspapers, books, and periodicals. It includes extensive historical newspaper holdings going back to the 17th century. Radio and television broadcasts deposited under the Legal Deposit Act are accessible on library premises. The Språkbanken (Norwegian Language Bank), containing digitized linguistic resources for language technology research, is also administered through this infrastructure.