Research at the Royal Danish Library
We conduct research based on the library's collections and issues related to their content and significance, access and preservation.
Photo: Laura Stamer
The Royal Danish Library is a research institution under the Ministry of Culture. Research is thus one of our tasks, and it helps to qualify the library's daily work. It is particularly important in relation to the compilation, registration, preservation and availability and dissemination of the library's national collections.
We conduct both collection-oriented and subject-oriented research, i.e. with a focus on general, scientific issues. When we conduct research based on the collections, it is to make them more accessible and usable for the country's universities and other research and knowledge institutions.
The dissemination and development activities that we carry out in connection with our research also help to support the library's goal of reaching a wide range of citizens.
Strategy for research
In our strategy for research, we describe the general framework for research at the library and special objectives for a given number of years.
In the strategy period 2020-2024, our objectives are:
- In order to strengthen the scientific quality of the library's tasks, we will consolidate and develop the organisational basis for research.
- In order to strengthen the library's role as an attractive research partner, we will expand the strategic external collaboration with universities and other relevant institutions.
- In order to explore the cultural heritage and ensure methodological development in the physical and digital collections, we will develop a joint research programme.
You are welcome to contact us if you have any questions about the research strategy.
Research programme: Cultural heritage and technologies of remembrance
In 2023-26, we work in particular with the research programme "Cultural heritage and technologies of remembrance". The programme is based on the fact that digital development has created both new opportunities and new challenges for the cultural heritage institutions that collect Danish cultural heritage.
The research programme will specifically illuminate the interaction between the technological framework for studying memory and the library's active selection of what is saved for posterity. The research group will look at the transparency of the collection work and the building of the collection, and what opportunities and consequences the ongoing digital transformation has for the use of both digitally born materials, materials with a physical appearance and hybrid collections.
Overall, the programme will shed light on what happens when a cultural heritage institution preserves on behalf of society. What do the materials we save and the methods we use mean for future opportunities to understand the past?
You are welcome to contact us if you have any questions about the research programme.
The research committee
Our internal research committee coordinates and develops the library's research. If you have any questions about the committee's work or the research, you are welcome to contact the research committee.
You are also welcome to get in touch to find out more about the possibilities of entering into a research collaboration with the library.
An advisory research committee is also attached to the Royal Danish Library. The external members are:
- Associate Professor Charlotte Appel, Aarhus University (chairperson)
- Professor Hans Dam Christensen, University of Copenhagen
- Professor Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Aarhus University
Research report
We prepare a research report every year, which describes the previous year's projects, publications and other research-related activities. The report also contains information about the research organisation at the library.