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DEN HAAG

Koninklijke Bibliotheek

Royal Library

Size 2,200,000 books; 15.000 current and 30,000 discontinued periodicals; art history section:150,000 books, 225 current periodicals;
Character and emphasis In 1998 the Koninklijke Bibliotheek celebrated its bicentennial. The nucleus of the collection consists of books from the library of Stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange, of which a national library was created in 1798; it is therefore rich in early editions. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek is one of the largest research libraries in the humanities in the country. Its main task, as National Library, is the care for the preservation of the Dutch written word and printed cultural heritage. A second task is the maintenance of a national depository of Dutch publications, which is based on voluntary agreements with organizations representing publishers and booksellers. The Dutch National Bibliography is compiled on the basis of this deposit collection. Its collection on the visual arts covers all fields and periods (including archaeology, architecture, the pictorial arts, sculpture, applied art, iconography, emblem books, cartography and the arts of the book), with an emphasis on Western art.

Special collections

• 1,500 medieval manuscripts, 5,000 manuscripts from later periods
• 2,065 incunabula, 3,500 post-incunabula
• 150,000 titels printed before 1800 including 30,000 pamphlets
• 30,000 rare or valuable printings from the 19th and 20th centuries
• 10,000 special bindings
• 150,000 letters from the beginning of the 17th century
• 100,000 children's books
• Paperhistorical collection
• Chapbooks
• Dutch comics (700 titles in the Special Collections; ca. 150 meter in closed stacks
• 5,000 posters from World War II
• A growing number of CD-ROM's is available for consultation

Catalogues

• Online catalogue (titles acquired since 1978); it can also be consulted through the Alexicon page on the InterNet: http://www.kb.nl. The catalogue is incorporated in the national union catalogue NCC
• Card indexes on author's name, title and subject
• Centrale Catalogus (CC) and Centrale Catalogus Periodieken (CCP): the Dutch national union (card) catalogue, including the holdings in books (CC) and periodicals (CCP) of many other Dutch libraries

• Various leaflets providing information and instruction on holdinsg and services
• KB publiek: Nieuwsbulletin voor de gebruikers van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek
• Catalogues of the exhibitions shown in the KB
• CD-ROM Dutch Printers Devices, reproducing 920 printer's devices from Dutch books published between 1540 and 1700 kept in the KB, annotated and indexed iconographically by means of ICONCLASS