Sweden

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 Formal Name:            Kungliga Biblioteket - National Library of Sweden
 Name of Librarian:     Tomas Lidman
 Address:                    Humlegarden, Box 5039, 102 41 Stockholm
 Phone:   (08) 4634000;    Fax:    4634004
 E-mail:    kungl.bibliotheket@kb.se

History & Collections

The Kungliga Biblioteket (Royal Library) is the national library of Sweden. Originally the private collection of the Swedish kings, it became a deposit library in 1661 and has had the status of a national library since then. In 1978 Lund University Library became the national lending library for Swedish  materials,  but it  had been  receiving copyright materials since 1698. Deposit copies of films and sound and video recordings are preserved by the Arkiver for Ljud och Bild (Archive for the Preservation of Films and Recordings), established in 1977.

The Royal Library also collects foreign publications in the humanities and the social sciences.  Its collection of manuscripts, occupying more than 2,100 meters of shelving, concentrates on Swedish authors such as August Strindberg and Nobel Prize authors Selma Lagerlof and Par Lagerqvist. The Rare Books Collection is of high quality.

Sources:

World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association,c1993.