Our Collections

The National Library's collections are made up of 15 million items and almost 8 million hours of audio and motion picture recordings. The majority of the print collection is stored in underground depositories beneath the library in Humlegården

The depositories house everything from hand-drawn maps to comprehensive book works in several volumes. The main collection categories are books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, pictures, ephemera, and posters. The physical collections are now augmented by digitized material and a growing selection of e-resources.

The National Library of Sweden is mandated to collect and preserve all Swedish publications. Under the Legal Deposits Act, all printers have been required since 1661 to send one copy of everything they print to us. Within a few years, once the Legal Deposits Act has been expanded, the library will also be accepting Swedish e-publications.

Audiovisual Material

The Swedish National Archive of Recorded Sound and Moving Images has, since 1979, ensured that audio and motion picture media is recorded and stored.  As of January 1st 2009, this project is supervised by the National Library of Sweden. The audiovisual collections are mainly comprised of radio, television, cinema, video, music and multimedia recordings, totaling almost 8 million hours of material.

Research Library

The National Library is also one of the leading European research libraries devoted to the humanities and has a large collection of foreign literature. National Library has acquired the collection through the royal collections and generous donations, as well as purchases.

We supplement the Swedish and foreign additions of newly published literature through purchases of rare and out-of-print publications.