NTNU University Library Special Collections and Archives

Overview

The Special Collections and Archives department of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Library is one of the most significant repositories of cultural and scientific heritage in Norway. Housed primarily at the Gunnerus Library in Trondheim, the department preserves over 500 private archives alongside rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and art collections.

History and Founding

The Gunnerus Library, which forms the institutional backbone of NTNU's special collections, was founded in 1768 as the library of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab, DKNVS), making it the oldest scientific library in Norway. NTNU University Library was formally established in 1996 upon the founding of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, consolidating several predecessor institutions and their holdings.

Collections and Holdings

The Special Collections department holds more than 500 private archives, with materials spanning Norwegian cultural and scientific history from the 1500s to the present. Collections include rare books, manuscripts, broadside ballads, photographs, maps, theatre materials, music collections, and heraldic literature. Among the most notable archival holdings are documents related to Nobel laureate Lars Onsager, architect Sverre Pedersen, and the complete archives of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters from 1760–1860.

Six items from the collections are designated members of Norges Dokumentarv, the Norwegian branch of UNESCO's Memory of the World programme. These include the Adler-Falsen draft to the Norwegian Constitution and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's original manuscript for the Norwegian national anthem.

Notable Materials Related to Journalism and Media

The collections include historical photographs, illustrated materials, and newspaper-related archives, including a collection of broadside ballads documenting significant historical events. A digitised collection is accessible via gunnerus.com, with all publicly available digitised documents shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Access and Usage

The Special Collections reading room is located on the 2nd floor of the Gunnerus Library in central Trondheim. Visits must be arranged in advance, and materials should be requested by email or phone by noon the day prior to a visit. Digitisation services are available with an estimated lead time of up to four weeks. The archive catalogue is searchable through the national portal Arkivportalen.no. Collections are free to access and open to all, though some materials are subject to access restrictions.