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.

The library system

Server. Interior with LEDs
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.

Mediestream

Collection of older newspaper clippings
Mediestream gives you online access to our unique digital collection of historical newspapers, radio and TV programmes, and cinema advertisements.

Tidsskrift.dk

The database of journals - tidsskrift.dk - on mobile
Tidsskrift.dk gives you access to Danish professional, scientific, and cultural journals in digital full text.

The sound of Denmark

Employee with Rubenvalse and CD
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

Portrait photo: Georg Brandes
Here you can read and search works from the Danish literary history from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.

API

Hands on keyboard with data symbols and icons
Using our API (Application Programming Interface), you can get access to datasets containing aerial photos, images and literary texts.

LOAR

Wavy landscape of binary numbers
Find our open datasets containing raw text from monographs, newspapers and audio recordings in our Library Open Access Repository (LOAR).

Newspaper collection

Employee in the Statens Avissamling between shelves
The national newspaper collection consists of daily newspapers and local newspapers that have been published in Denmark or have direct relations to Denmark.

The Folklore Archives

Large lunch table with senior citizens
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.

Map collection

Older maps of parts of Europe
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.

Art history collections

Shelves in art history collection
In the art history collections you will find artists' archives, auction and exhibition catalogues, Weilbach's Archive, Artists' Books, art history archives, photographs, slides and more.

Nationaldiskoteket

Employee at shelves with LPs
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

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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.

Oriental collection

Color drawing of oriental warriors
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.

Theatre collection

Theatre scene
In the theatre collection, you will find material on a wide range of performing arts, such as dance, theatre, performance art, circus and opera.

Collection overview A-Z

Shelves with archive fluids
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.

How to find architecture

Drawer shelf in the Royal Danish Library's architecture collection
We have collected approx. 300,000 architectural drawings from Danish architects. We also have architectural photographs, architects' archives, sketchbooks, architectural models and travel sketches.

How to find art history

Archive folders from the art history collection
The art history collections contain auction catalogues, photographs, artist signatures and art history archives. Some have been digitised, while others still only exist in physical form.

How to find images

Children and young people celebrate the liberation of Denmark in 1945
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 maps

Older maps of parts of Northern Europe
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 music

Employee between shelves with vinyl records
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.

Get inspired

Map collection

Older maps of parts of Europe
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.

Newspaper collection

Employee in the Statens Avissamling between shelves
The national newspaper collection consists of daily newspapers and local newspapers that have been published in Denmark or have direct relations to Denmark.