KB National Library of the Netherlands | |
---|---|
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) | |
52°4′50.37″N4°19′36.35″E / 52.0806583°N 4.3267639°E | |
Location | The Hague |
Type | National Library |
Established | 1798 |
Collection | |
Size | 7 million printed items: over 115 km (71 mi) of books, newspapers, journals, and microforms [1] |
Access and use | |
Members | 16,975 |
Other information | |
Budget | €53 million |
Director | Lily Knibbeler |
Employees | 412 |
Website | www |
The Royal Library of the Netherlands (Dutch: Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB; Royal Library) is the national library of the Netherlands, based in The Hague, founded in 1798. [2] [3] The KB collects everything that is published in and concerning the Netherlands, from medieval literature to today's publications. About 7 million publications are stored in the stockrooms, including books, newspapers, magazines and maps. The KB also offers many digital services, such as the national online Library (with e-books and audiobooks), Delpher (millions of digitized pages) and The Memory (about 800,000 images). Since 2015, the KB has played a coordinating role for the network of the public library. [4] The KB's collection of websites as hosted by the former Dutch internet provider XS4ALL is on the Unesco documentary world heritage memory of the world. It is the first web collection in the world that has been granted this status. [5]
The initiative to found a national library was proposed by representative Albert Jan Verbeek on August 17, 1798. The collection would be based on the confiscated book collection of William V. [6] [7] The library was officially founded as the Nationale Bibliotheek (National Library) on November 8 of the same year, after a committee of representatives had advised the creation of a national library on the same day. The National Library was initially only open to members of the Representative Body.
King Louis Bonaparte gave the national library in 1806 the predicate 'Royal'. Napoleon Bonaparte transferred the Royal Library to The Hague as property, while also allowing the Imperial Library in Paris to expropriate publications from the Royal Library. In 1815 King William I of the Netherlands confirmed the name of 'Royal Library' (Dutch: Koninklijke Bibliotheek) by royal decree. It has been known as the National Library of the Netherlands since 1982, when it opened new quarters. [8] The institution became 'Independent Administrative Body' of the state in 1996, although it is financed by the Department of Education, Culture and Science. On 18 November 2014 the Wsob (Public Library Facilities System Act or 'Library Act' [9] ) came into being. The act became valid on 1 January 2015 and from this moment onwards four organizations from the library world continued under the name Koninklijke Bibliotheek. These organizations are Sector Institute Public Libraries (SIOB), the Foundation Bibliotheek.nl (BNL), the Digital Library for Dutch Literature (DBNL) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB). In 2020 the name was changed to 'KB, national library'.
The KB's main task is to acquire, catalogue, store and make available the printed (including the modern digital variants) heritage of the Netherlands and thus offer everyone in the Netherlands the opportunity to read, learn and research. It is also responsible for directing and coordinating the Public Library world according to the Public Library Facilities Act (WSOB). Together with the network of (public) libraries, the KB is building the national digital library.
In the KB's older collections, the humanities were central, with an emphasis on Dutch history, language and culture. Since 1974, however, all publications in the field of exact and social sciences have also been collected within the framework of the 'Depot van Nederlandse Publicaties' (Depository of Dutch Publications).
In 2016, the KB contained 7,000,000 items, equivalent to 115 kilometres of bookshelves. Most items in the collection are books. There are also pieces of "grey literature", where the author, publisher, or date may not be apparent but the document has cultural or intellectual significance. [8] The collection contains almost the entire literature of the Netherlands, from medieval manuscripts to modern scientific publications. As there was no mandatory law for depositing Dutch publications, the library started on January 1, 1974, the voluntary 'Depot van Nederlandse Publicaties' (Dutch Repository Library). This in contrast with most other countries that have a legal deposit of publications. For a publication to be accepted, it must be from a registered Dutch publisher. [8]
The Royal Library of the Netherlands also has works of art and antiquities. One such piece of art is The Madonna with the Christ Child by the fifteenth-century French painter Jean Fouquet, who is regarded as one of the best painters from that era. A valuable antiquity that is housed within the library is a bound book by Christopher Plantin (1520–89), a sixteenth-century French printer and publisher. The binding is made of brown calfskin with gold tooling. The book was made at Plantin's workshop in Antwerp and was dedicated to Emperor Charles V (1500–58). The library also has remarkable eighteenth-century brocade paper from Augsburg, Germany. In addition, the library holds a rare elaborately illustrated book from 1596. The book is of the travels of Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563-1611). He travelled to Spain, India, Indonesia, and East Asia. [10] Another valuable antiquity is the oldest depiction of 'Dutchmen'. In 975, Count Dirk and Countess Hildegard donated the medieval manuscript, known as the Egmond Gospels , to Egmond Abbey. It is one of the oldest surviving church treasures and includes depictions of 'Dutch' people and buildings. The Egmond Gospels were lost around the sixteenth century, but were found in the early nineteenth century. Knowing its historical significance, the Dutch government purchased the manuscript and brought it to the Royal Library of the Netherlands. [11] The Royal Library of the Netherlands also has the Trivulzio Book of Hours (ca. 1465), a medieval manuscript that measures 9 cm x 13 cm, and contains wonderfully detailed Flemish miniature art. [12] One of the most precious atlases is the Atlas van der Hagen [13] of 4 volumes, each containing something more than 100 maps and prints, created around 1690. All plates were coloured by hand and highlighted with gold by Dirk Jansz van Santen, a famous 'afzetter' (somebody who embellished prints, maps and book illustrations at a time when it was not yet possible to print in colour).
In 1871, the library bought the library of A. van der Linde, among others devoted to chess. Mixed with that of M. Niemeijer, acquired in 1948, the Biblioteca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana (approximately 40,000 items) forms one of the most important collections worldwide on this topic. [14]
The collection is accessible for members. Any person aged 16 years or older can become a member. One-day passes are also available. Requests for material take approximately 30 minutes. The KB hosts several open access websites, including the "Memory of the Netherlands" (Geheugen van Nederland), [15] Digital Library for Dutch Literature [16] and Delpher, an archive of more than 100 million pages as of 2020. [17]
The KB started a voluntary Deposit of Dutch Publications on 1 January 1974. In 1985, by decree of the Council of Ministers, government departments and institutions and institutions subsidized by the government were obliged to submit a free copy of their publications to the KB. The KB strives for a Dutch collection that is as complete as possible of books, magazines and geographical maps published in the Netherlands, written abroad by Dutch people or about the Netherlands. Sheet music (because the volume of publications per year was too large for processing within the Depository) and Braille books (so as not to unnecessarily withdraw copies from libraries for the blind) were excluded from the start. At first, local door-to-door newspapers were also included, but the acquisition was stopped in 1992. Title information of the publications is included in the Dutch National Bibliography. In 1976, the editorship of Brinkman's Cumulatieve Catalogus van Boeken (Brinkman's Cumulative Catalog of Books)(1858-2001) was taken over from the private publisher Samsom-Sijthoff, giving it the status of national bibliography. The KB has been carrying out the Depositary Task since 1974 and thus manages part of the Dutch cultural heritage. In order to protect the interests of the copyright holders, the publications can only be consulted locally, unless the copyright holder consents to such online consultation.
The Short-title catalogue, Netherlands is a service of the KB. It concerns a database of the Dutch retrospective bibliography up to 1800. The database contains (abridged) descriptions of all books that were published up to and including the year 1800 within the borders of the present-day Netherlands and of all books published in the Dutch language outside the Netherlands. The STCN is made on the basis of the collections of libraries in and outside the Netherlands. The size of the file is more than 200,000 titles in more than 500,000 copies (November 2013). The STCN was created in a project. The project was completed in 2009. The service is continued by the KB and the database is expanded daily.
The Literature museum (in Dutch: Literatuurmuseum) was founded in 1750 [18] as Nederlands Letterkundig Museum, [19] The museum contains a large collection of letters, manuscripts and memorabilia. The museum has three permanent and several temporary exhibitions. It also contains a special children's book museum. [18] On 4 February 2016, an online museum was opened. [19] On 1 November 2016, the museum was renamed to Literature museum. [20] The museum has a reading room with an extensive collection of newspaper clipping, and under certain conditions, some archival material can be consulted. [18]
On the occasion of the bicentenary of the library in 1998, the exhibition Het worderbaarlijke alfabet (The Miraculous Alphabet) was organized in the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam and three books [21] [22] [23] and a special 80 cent stamp were issued. In 2002, the next major exhibition Wonderland, from Pietje Bell to Harry Potter, especially for children, was held in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, in which a selection was made from its collection of 125,000 children's books. [24] [25] Thanks to support from the VSB Cultural Fund, which took care of the transport of more than 40,000 school children between 8 and 12 years old from all over the Netherlands, this was a great success. When a new storeroom extension of the KB complex was taken into use in 2006, the exhibition Magazine! was organized. This was set up as a three-dimensional magazine in which the visitor literally walks around. [26]
The KB's Research Department is engaged in internationally renowned research in the field of digital technology, sustainable preservation and accessibility of both paper and digital heritage. Important topics are the applicability of artificial intelligence, the use of big data, the increasing importance of privacy & security, the changes in the publishing and publishing world and the role of public libraries in today's society.
In 1973 the 'Rijksgebouwendienst' (Government Buildings Agency) awarded the contract to the architects A. Hagoort, P.B.M. van der Meer and A.J. Trotz from Bureau OD205 for a new building, construction of which began in 1977. Since 1982, the library has been housed in a modern building at the Prins Willem Alexanderhof in The Hague, next to The Hague Central Station. The entire complex comprises approx. 55,000 m2 net and approx. 78,000 m2 gross surface (gross content 305,000 m³). The building, which is characterized by 5,200 white aluminum plates that clad the facades, with rounded corners and recessed facade surfaces, stands next to the Nationaal Archief. The building also houses the 'Literatuurmuseum' (Literary Museum), the Kinderboekenmuseum (Children's Book Museum), RKD and the offices of Europeana, DEN (Digital Heritage Netherlands) LIBER and IFLA. The CDNL [27] secretariat is also housed in the KB building. The library was previously located in the former city palace Huis Huguetan on the Lange Voorhout (period 1821 to 1982), before that in the Mauritshuis (period 1807 to 1821) and a site at the Binnenhof (period 1798 to 1807). [28]
Leiden University Libraries is a library founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. It is regarded as a significant place in the development of European culture: it is a part of a small number of cultural centres that gave direction to the development and spread of knowledge during the Enlightenment. This was due particularly to the simultaneous presence of a unique collection of exceptional sources and scholars. Holdings include approximately 5,200,000 volumes, 1,000,000 e-books, 70,000 e-journals, 2,000 current paper journals, 60,000 Oriental and Western manuscripts, 500,000 letters, 100,000 maps, 100,000 prints, 12,000 drawings and 300,000 photographs. The library manages the largest collections worldwide on Indonesia and the Caribbean. Furthermore, Leiden University Libraries is the only heritage organization in The Netherlands with five registrations of documents in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
The Royal Library of Belgium is the national library of Belgium. The library has a history that goes back to the age of the Dukes of Burgundy. In the second half of the 20th century, a new building was constructed on the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg in central Brussels, near the Central Station. The library owns several collections of historical importance, like the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy, and is the depository for all books ever published in Belgium or abroad by Belgian authors.
Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. was the first Dutch newspaper. It began appearing in Amsterdam in June 1618 and was a regular weekly publication. The Courante can be called the first broadsheet paper, because it was issued in folio-size. Before this, news periodicals had been pamphlets in quarto-size.
The Gruuthuse manuscript is a medieval compilation, the oldest core of which is dated about 1395, while the youngest unfinished contributions date from around 1408. The manuscript is the only known source for a large number of Middle Dutch texts.
The Nationaal Archief (NA) is the national archives of the Netherlands, located in The Hague. It houses collections for the central government, the province of South Holland, and the former County of Holland. There is also material from private institutions and individuals with an association to the Dutch government or the political or social history of the Netherlands. The Nationaal Archief holds the Archives of the Dutch East India Company from 1602–1811, which were, along with related records held by South Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2003 in recognition of their historical value. Recently, the photographic archives of Spaarnestad Photo were included in the Nationaal Archief. It has been announced that Wikipedia will receive user rights over many photos from these archives.
Museum Bredius is a museum named after Abraham Bredius on the Lange Vijverberg in The Hague. It is remarkable for its collection of etchings and paintings, but is most attractive to visitors for its accurate restoration of the 18th-century Herenhuis interior with period furnishings.
The Beudeker Collection is a collection of maps and views of the Netherlands and Belgium in the British Library, created by the Dutch merchant Christoffel Beudeker.
The Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde is a prestigious and exclusive literary society. The MNL was established in Leiden in 1766 and is still located there. At the moment, the society has approximately 1,600 members, mainly Dutch scholars. New members can only be elected after they are introduced by existing members. The MNL has two regional branches, for the Northern and the Southern part of the Netherlands, and also a representative in South Africa. King Willem-Alexander is the patron of the MNL.
The Lange Voorhout is a street in the old city centre of The Hague, Netherlands. It is L-shaped and runs from Kneuterdijk in the west to Toernooiveld in the east, reaching approximately 0.47 kilometres (0.29 mi) in length.
Nederlandsche vogelen is a five volume Dutch natural history compendium, published in Amsterdam from 1770. It was published in installments and was finished in 1829. It was the first comprehensive avifauna of the Netherlands.
The following is a timeline of the history of the municipality of The Hague, Netherlands,
The Beyeren Armorial is a manuscript roll of arms of the early 15th century, containing 1096 hand-colored coats of arms, with annotations in Middle Dutch. It is held by in the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague (KB), shelf mark 79 K 21.
The Nederlandse Centrale Catalogus (NCC) is the official Dutch bibliographic catalog and metadata index system that links to and consolidates the catalogs of over 400 libraries in the Netherlands.
Gerard Isaäc Lieftinck, known in print as G.I. Lieftinck, was a Dutch academic specialising in medieval European manuscripts.
As of 2018, Wolters Kluwer ranks as the Dutch biggest publisher of books in terms of revenue. Other notable Dutch houses include Brill and Elsevier.
Kathryn Margaret Rudy FBA FRSE is a manuscript historian at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is best known for her forensic approach to medieval books, and has pioneered the use of the densitometer to measure the grime that original readers deposited in their books. Her research focuses on the medieval reception of manuscripts, how they were manipulated and handled, and how book-making skills were lost with the advent of the printing industry.
Hotel Des Indes is a hotel located at the Lange Voorhout in The Hague, The Netherlands. It was constructed as a mansion in 1858. In 1881, it opened as a hotel.
Margaretha Henrica Gerardus Maria Heijmans was a Dutch writer and illustrator of children's literature.