The State and University Library () in
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...
, Denmark, is a
national library
A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, ...
and the university library of
Aarhus University
Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...
. It is a
research library
A research library is a library that contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of top ...
and the central repository for all Danish public libraries holding millions of items both in print and digital formats including sound and music recordings, videos, journals, books, patents, maps, prints and drawings. The library is directly subordinated the
Danish Ministry of Culture
The minister for culture of Denmark () is the Danish political minister office responsible for culture, head of the Ministry of Culture of Denmark.
The political responsibility for culture, as well as church and education, was with the kultus ...
and is a
legal deposit
Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...
library, receiving copies of all audio, video and newspapers produced in Denmark.
The library is located on the south side of ''Nordre Ringgade'' in
Midtbyen, Aarhus on the Aarhus University campus. The primary document storage facility is the 14 stories ''Bogtårnet'' building.
In 2017, it merged with the
Royal Library in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
to form a combined national library. The combined library organisation (the separate library locations in Copenhagen and Aarhus are maintained) is known as the
Royal Danish Library
Royal Danish Library () is a merger of the two previous national libraries in Denmark: the State and University Library in Aarhus and the Royal Library in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, wit ...
().
History
The state library was established by law in 1897 as one of the first attempts to decentralize the cultural monopoly of
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
. The library opened five years later in 1902 as a Research Library and administrative center for all Danish public libraries. In 1928 Aarhus University was established and the state library became the library for the new university. The responsibilities of the library have been expanded throughout the years and it today functions as a depot and center for loan-cooperation between Danish public libraries and as a center for literature in immigrant languages.
Collection
The collection includes 100,000 books donated by the
Danish Royal Library when the state library was first established. The Royal
archivist
An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...
Caspar Frederik Wegener had at the time of his death in 1893 the largest book collection Denmark. The collection was bought by the Danish state in 1897 and it became an important contribution to the new library. The state library also contains the State Newspaper Collection which was established in 1916 and the State Media Collection.
The library's cultural heritage collections are:
* Radio/TV collection: Danish radio and television from the mid-1980s onwards.
* State Newspaper Collection: all the Danish newspapers from the mid-1600s onwards.
* Danish Commercials: Danish cinema adverts from about 1955 to 1995, and all the adverts on TV2 television in the period 1988–2005.
* Music and sound: all Danish music publications and unique sound recordings such as speeches by famous men and women, dialects, and Denmark's oldest sound recordings on wax cylinders.
* Netarchive: the Danish part of the internet from July 2005 onwards.
* Special collections: a range of collections, for instance timetables, funeral sermons, handwriting, old political documents and much more.
In 1999, the collection included 4 million items in print such as books, journals, newspapers, etc. and sound, radio and television recordings.
Buildings
The state library started out in a building on
Vester Allé 12 designed by
Hack Kampmann for the purpose. The building quickly proved too small, especially after the duties of being a university library was added in 1928. In 1963, the library moved to a new building, ''Bogtårnet'' (The Book Tower), designed by
C.F. Møller on the university campus. In 1995, the architect firm
Kjær & Richter renovated the interior.
Fusion with The Royal Library
In September 2016, the Danish Ministry of Culture announced that The State and University Library would merge with the Royal Library in Copenhagen, with effect from 1 January 2017. The new institution is called the
Royal Danish Library
Royal Danish Library () is a merger of the two previous national libraries in Denmark: the State and University Library in Aarhus and the Royal Library in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, wit ...
.
References
External links
*
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Statsbiblioteket
{{DEFAULTSORT:State and University Library, Denmark
1902 establishments in Denmark
Libraries established in 1902
Library buildings completed in 1902
Deposit libraries
Education in Aarhus
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
Functionalist architecture in Aarhus