National Libraries
The great deposit collections. The British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale, the Library of Congress, the Vatican Library, and the buildings, budgets, legal-deposit rules and cyberattacks that keep them going or nearly stop them.
Part of Books
50 moments in this segment.
- - Card Division of the Library of Congress 3c18631u original. People working in Card Division in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
- - The German National Library in Leipzig. DW Euromaxx tours the new wing of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, a 60-million-euro extension the size of two football pitches.
- - The Library of Congress book-collecting contest. A Library of Congress event in which young collectors present the personal libraries they have assembled.
- - Treasures of the Library of Congress. A talk on notable holdings in the Library of Congress rare book collections and how they were acquired.
- - Sarajevo's National Library reopens - AFP News Agency. AFP on the 2014 reopening of the Vijećnica, 22 years after it was destroyed by shelling during the siege of Sarajevo.
- - Annex and Laboratory Buildings - Indian National Library - Belvedere Estate - Kolkata 2014-05-02 4738. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - Annex Buildings - Indian National Library - Belvedere Estate - Kolkata 2014-05-02 4765. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - Annex Buildings - Indian National Library - Belvedere Estate - Kolkata 2014-05-02 4763. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - National Library - panoramio (1). A national library building. Modern photograph.
- - Sao Tome National Library. A national library building. Modern photograph.
- - Rebuilding Jefferson's lost library. PBS NewsHour on the effort to reassemble Jefferson's original collection, book by book.
- - The Library of Congress is your library. An overview of the national library's history and its role as a public institution.
- - BnF Latin 11658 f.60r Life of St Samson of Dol. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - Atles Català BNF. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - Sarajevo's national library reopens. AP reports on the reopening of the Vijecnica 22 years after it burned.
- - The National Library of Sweden - Kungliga biblioteket Stockholm - lesesalen - reading hall
- - Jefferson's legacy: a history of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress historian on the institution's founding, its burning in 1814 and Jefferson's replacement collection.
- - The card catalog past, present and future. A Library of Congress panel on managing the modern firehose of information.
- - Rem Koolhaas on Qatar National Library. The architect on designing the Doha library as a single terraced room, with the heritage collection sunk into an excavated floor.
- - Seventy years of the National Diet Library. The NDL marks its 1948 founding, established after the war on an American model as a library serving both parliament and the public.
- - Libraries: the architecture of community. Kenneth Breisch on American library architecture from 1730 to 1950 at the Library of Congress.
- - Harry Potter: A History of Magic at the British Library. An AP report on the British Library exhibition pairing Rowling's drafts with centuries-old books on magic.
- - Jefferson's books and the founding of a national library. A Rare Book School talk on Thomas Jefferson's library and its purchase to rebuild the Library of Congress.
- - Kosovo's National Library as architecture. Documentary on the Prishtina national library designed by Andrija Mutnjaković, one of the most argued-over library buildings in Europe.
- - The original Alice at the British Library. A 1989 British Library film about Carroll's manuscript and the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- - New arrivals in the Law Library's rare books. Curator Nathan Dorn shows recent additions to the Law Library of Congress rare book collection.
- - A tour of the King's Library Tower. A British Library curator tours the glass tower holding George III's library at the centre of the building.
- - Alice's Adventures Under Ground: a reading at the British Library. The British Library presents Lewis Carroll's original handwritten manuscript, the version he gave to Alice Liddell.
- - A short history of the British Library. A tour of the St Pancras site and how the national library came to exist separately from the museum.
- - Artist books and stories from the Library of Congress. A museum talk by a Library of Congress rare book curator on artists' books and collection stories.
- - Bibliothèque Nationale du Congo Brazza. A national library building. Modern photograph.
- - Mark Dimunation on the Library of Congress rare book division. C-SPAN's Booknotes+ interviews the head of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division about the collection.
- - The building art of the National Library of Australia. Detailed look at the Canberra library building on Lake Burley Griffin, its marble, stained glass and tapestries as much as its collections.
- - Biblioteca Nacional de España en abril de 2023 04. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - Biblioteca Nacional de España en abril de 2023 06. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - The Library of Congress card catalog. The Library of Congress on the card catalog's purpose, its legacy and why it was retired.
- - Arthur Houghton and the founding of Harvard's rare book library. A Library of Congress lecture on the collector behind Harvard's Houghton Library.
- - Jefferson and the Library of Congress. Monticello on how Jefferson's private collection became the core of the national library.
- - Around the Library of Congress Spring 2024 - 4. Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction winner George Saunders speaks about his work, April 25, 2024. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
- - Around the Library of Congress Spring 2024 - 20. Author and actor George Takei speaks to local school groups at the Library of Congress, May 10, 2024. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
- - Visiting the British Library. A visit to the British Library, which holds over 170 million items.
- - Argentine musician Fito Páez looks over a colelctions display during a tour of the Library of Congress on Apri. Argentine musician Fito Páez looks over a colelctions display during a tour of the Library, April 11, 2025. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
- - Hebrew treasures from the Library of Congress. A Library of Congress presentation of rare Hebrew books and manuscripts in the collection.
- - The Library of Congress. Stuff You Missed in History Class on the institution's founding, burnings and expansion.
- - Nacional Library of Aruba, San Nicolas, Aruba 01. A national library building. Modern photograph.
- - Eugene Ormandy having a Wikimedia lecture for staff members of National Diet Library 20250212. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - National Diet Library 20250212. A library. Modern photograph of the building or interior as it stands today.
- - Exploring space through rare books. Library of Congress curators present early printed books on astronomy and space from the collection.
- - "The Source," a new experiential research gallery for children, teens and families at the Library of Congress. 9, 2026. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
- - The national library of Sarajevo. A history of the library's collections, its destruction and what could not be replaced.