The National Library of Sweden National reference copy National bibliography and the ISBN Office/Agency Research resources, a research library in the humanities and social sciences National agency
Milestones 1483 The first book is printed in Sweden, Dialogus creaturarum. 1500’s The Wasa kings’ book collections are established as a royal library. The first known catalogue of royal books is dated 1568. 1661 A decree is issued requiring submission of one copy of all printed items to the royal cabinet prior to publication. 1697 Fire devastation at the Royal Palace Tre Kronor, destroying three quarters of the books.
1768 The royal book collections are relocated to the new palace 1768 The royal book collections are relocated to the new palace. 1877 KB is appointed as an independent agency and formally designated as Sweden’s National Library. 1878 Inauguration of the newly constructed library building in Humlegården by architect Gustav Dahl. 1928 Two wings are added by architect Axel Anderberg. 1972 LIBRIS, the National Union Catalogue is launched.
1979 New legal deposit legislature includes sound and moving images, the new ALB agency is established. 1997 Two underground storage stacks are constructed in Humlegården. 2009 KB and the National Archive of Recorded Sound an and Moving Images (formly ALB) merge. 2011 Awarded the new assignment of national coordination and development in collaboration with the Swedish library sector. 2015 Assignment to create a library strategy for all publicly financed libraries.
KB in Numbers, 2016 Personnel, full-time equivalents 298 (305) Personnel, women 53% (52%) Personnel, men 47% (48%) Average age 49 years (49) Budget 382 million SEK (378 million SEK) (2015 numbers are provided inside brackets.) Loans, printed materials 92 000 (88 000) On-site loans, manuscripts 4400 (4600) Access provided, full-text database documents 37 000 (33 000) Data storage, accumulated data 16 Pb (Pb 12)
The Collections in Numbers KB’s collections span some 173 km of shelving and 16 million hours of sound and moving images. 76 km book collections 33 km newspapers 13 km ephemera 7.6 km microfilm 6.2 km posters 10 km maps and images 5.2 km manuscripts 1.6 km film, varied data carriers (Grängesberg) 0.2 km printed music 10 million hours video and sound cassettes, CDs and DVDs (2/3 are sound) 7 million hours digital audiovisual materials
Libraries in Sweden, in brief 1145 public libraries 81 book buses 127 higher education libraries 51 special libraries 67 hospital libraries 881 school libraries (personnel 20 hours weekly, not including approximately 445 additional libraries integrated within the public library system) (Number of points of service open to the general public in 2015).
Library politics and development 1996 The first Library Legislation 1997 Knowledge Lift 2011 As a consequence of the Culture Invention KB was assigned to have the overview and coordination for the library sector 2015 KB was assigned to create a Library Strategy for all publicly funded libraries 2017 in the autumn, analysis of the surrounding society – to illustrate challenges and opportunities for the library sector 2019 1th of March - to be submitted to the Government
Thank you for listening Gunilla Herdenberg Library Director, National Library of Sweden gunilla.herdenberg@kb.se EBLIDA-NAPLE Annual Conference May 2017 in Aarhus, Denmark