The library system
In the library system, you can borrow books, articles, and journals. You can also find databases and physical and digital material e.g. images, music releases, sheet music, manuscripts, and much more.
Find materials
Our collections are large. We have many different search services and special collections, which is why you cannot search all of our material at once. However, our guides will help you.
Search in the library system
searchSearch directly in the library system for, among other things, books, journals and articles.
An Aerial View of Denmark
See our digitised aerial photos from our extensive collection. You can also help us place them on the map of Denmark.
Mediestream
Mediestream gives you online access to our unique digital collection of historical newspapers, radio and TV programmes, and cinema advertisements.
Digital collections
Immerse yourself in a range of digital collections, including images, printed matter, handwritten manuscripts, maps, rare books, and much more.
Digital collections of the Art Library
The library has many unique collections of architecture, visual arts, history of arts and museology. Here you can get an overview and search the digitised parts of the collections.
Tidsskrift.dk
Tidsskrift.dk gives you access to Danish professional, scientific, and cultural journals in digital full text.
Danish educational history
Take a closer look at Danish educational history material such as wallcharts, photos, parish charts, and teaching material throughout the ages.
The sound of Denmark
Listen to audio clips of folk songs, dialects and narratives from all over Denmark, as well as recordings from the ethnographical journeys of Haslund-Christensen, and much more.
Texts
Here you can read and search works from the Danish literary history from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Denmark’s Letters
This collection lets you read and search our digitised historical letters, sent from the 16th century and up to the 1930s.
Digital magazines
In the library system, you can find the digitised editions of the magazines Bil-revyen, MC-revyen, and Båd-revyen.
API
Using our API (Application Programming Interface), you can get access to datasets containing aerial photos, images and literary texts.
LOAR
Find our open datasets containing raw text from monographs, newspapers and audio recordings in our Library Open Access Repository (LOAR).
How to find architecture
The library has approximately 300,000 architectural drawings collected from Danish architects as well as architectural photography, archives, sketchbooks, models and travel sketches.
How to find images
Our collection of prints and photographs contains everything from copperplate engravings to fine art photography. Some images are available digitally and some are not.
How to find computer games
We have a large collection of Danish computer, smartphone and console games, primarily from 1998 onwards. Some are found on physical media and some are digital only.
How to find newspapers
We have almost all of the Danish newspapers published from 1666 and up to present day. Some are available digitally and some are not.
How to find Danish radio and TV programmes
You can find programmes broadcasted on Danish radio and TV from the mid-1980s onwards. We have nearly all programmes from DR and TV2, while other channels are archived from select periods of time.
How to find folklore and material about the culture of everyday life
Our archive of folklore tells the story of ordinary people’s lives and contains the folktales, songs and traditions we share as Danes.
How to find manuscripts
The library’s collection of manuscripts date from the Middle Ages to the present. Some of these are available online and others can be viewed in our reading room.
How to find maps
We have an extensive collection of maps and atlases, and we have digitised some but not all of them. Some can be viewed online, while others can only be studied closely in our reading rooms.
How to find sheet music
We have printed sheet music from both Denmark and abroad, as well as some Danish manuscript scores. We also have performance material for both professional and amateur ensembles.
How to find advertisements
We have Danish cinema advertisements from the period 1907-1995, TV2 advertisements from the period 1988-2005 and TV2 advertising blocks broadcasted in week 46 of 2005 and onwards.
How to find music
We have large collections dealing with music. For example, you can find sheet music and recorded music, but also a lot of material about the music.
How to find pamphlets
We have a wide range of pamphlets from parish magazines to Daell’s department store catalogues. Some has been digitised, some is searchable, and some needs to be ordered by writing to us.
How to find videos
We have nearly all the videos that have been published in Denmark on either VHS, DVD or Blu-ray from 1998 onwards.
Advertisements Collection
The collection of advertisements is an essential documentation of 20th century Danish cultural history. We have advertisements that were shown in cinemas and on TV.
Collection of Prints and Photographs
We have both physical and digital images in the collection. They all come from Denmark or have some kind of connection with the country.
Computer Game Collection
The computer game collection contains more than 4000 Danish computer, mobile or console games that have been collected on CD-ROM, cassettes and as digital downloads since the late 1990s.
Educational History Collection
The educational history collection consists of a selection of digitised and photographed items and records from the defunct Danish School Museum and from collections from the AU Library, Emdrup.
How to find plays and performing arts material
Are you looking for plays or materials about performing arts such as dance, theatre, performance art, opera and circus? We have manuscripts, photos, programmes, audio and personal archives.
Judaica collection
The Judaica collection contains manuscripts and books in Jewish languages like Hebrew and Yiddish.
Map collection
Our collection of maps is one of Northern Europe's largest. The oldest maps in the collection date from the 16th century, and the newest may have just come from the printing house.
Nationaldiskoteket
Nationaldiskoteket is our collection of published music and speech. It documents Danish music history from the first recordings made in the 1890s to today's digital releases.
Netarkivet
We are responsible for collecting and preserving the Danish part of the Internet as part of the Danish Legal Deposit Act. The goal is to ensure the material can be used for future research purposes.
Newspaper collection
The national newspaper collection consists of daily newspapers and local newspapers that have been published in Denmark or have direct relations to Denmark.
Oriental collection
The Oriental collection consists of manuscripts, printed works, and other material originating in non-western language areas and cultures, mostly Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Radio and TV Collection
In the radio and TV collection, you will find broadcasts from DR, TV 2 and a number of other Danish TV channels from the mid-80s onward.
Sound recordings in the collections
We have a number of different sound recordings in the collections that document the Danish sound history from the first recordings on wax cylinders in 1889 to today's digital releases.
The Aerial Photography Collection
Today, Royal Danish Library's collections contain 5.2 million aerial photo units. Aerial photos are images taken from the air, typically from an airplane.
Theatre collection
In the theatre collection, you will find material on a wide range of performing arts, such as dance, theatre, performance art, circus and opera.
The Folklore Archives
We are responsible for collecting and preserving ordinary people's experiences of life, daily life, traditions, music and stories. Find out how we have organised the collected material.
The manuscript collection
In the collection we have, among other things, letters, manuscripts and handwritten books. The oldest are from the early Middle Ages and the newest from our time.
The pamphlet collection
In the collection you will find everything from supermarket catalogues to broadsheet ballads. In short: everyday print.
The sheet music collection
We have a large collection of Danish and foreign sheet music. Some you can borrow and some you can only use in our reading rooms. It contains printed music, sheet music manuscripts and vocal material.
Video collection
We collect released video productions as a part of our preservation of the Danish cultural heritage.
Collection overview A-Z
We have collections that range from hand-written to printed matter, from photography to video, and from sound and music recordings to sheet music. Dive into the collections and learn more about them.
Get inspired
Map collection
Our collection of maps is one of Northern Europe's largest. The oldest maps in the collection date from the 16th century, and the newest may have just come from the printing house.
Collection of Prints and Photographs
We have both physical and digital images in the collection. They all come from Denmark or have some kind of connection with the country.
Newspaper collection
The national newspaper collection consists of daily newspapers and local newspapers that have been published in Denmark or have direct relations to Denmark.