Loans
You may study materials from the Swedish Collection as reading room loans in the Main Reading Room and the Periodicals Reading Room at the National Library.
You can usually check out foreign material that is not part of the Swedish Collection on circulating loans, with some exceptions. Books printed before 1900, especially fragile or valuable books, periodicals, pamphlets, and items from the Special Collections may be read only on library premises.
The Swedish Collection covers literature written in Swedish and for Swedes. The collection also includes literature published in Sweden or translated from Swedish to a foreign language, and works related to Sweden, Swedes, or Swedish conditions.
You may only borrow foreign periodicals and pamphlets and read them on library premises. This also applies to foreign literature that was printed before 1900, is especially fragile, or is particularly valuable. The National Library also has large collections of periodicals, maps, pictures, printed music, posters, manuscripts, and ephemera. These Special Collections may only be read on library premises.
Reading Room Loan Rules
When you have finished reading for the day, you must return reading room loans. Tell an employee if you want to keep the book on loan. It will be held for seven days before we send it back to the closed stacks. You may have a maximum of seven volumes out on reading room loan.
You have a 14-day guaranteed loan period. Thereafter, the library may demand that you return the book. If others are on the waiting list or have requested the book, it will be issued to the next person in line. If no one else is waiting for the book, you may keep your loan longer, provided that you use the material at least once in each seven-day period.
The maximum loan period is three months. We may demand return of a loan after 14 days. If we do, you must return the material immediately. You are responsible for return of the material even if you are away from home. If the book is returned by mail, it must be carefully packaged. You may not take our books out of the country. Upon request, you must show borrowed materials to the security guard at the library exit.
Home Loan Rules
You have a 14-day guaranteed loan period, after which we may demand return of the book. If someone is on the waiting list or has submitted a request, you will receive a notice to return the book. The return notice will be sent either by e-mail or ordinary mail.
If no one else requests the book, we will send a return notice after three months. You may renew the loan once via our online catalog, Regina, as long as no one else has requested the book. To renew the loan a second time, you must bring the item to the library in person.
