National and University Library of Iceland - History

History

The first national library of Iceland, Íslands stiftisbókasafn, was established at the instigation of Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn and the Icelandic Literary Society in 1818, and the first books of the library were gifts from Icelanders and Danes. From 1825 the library was housed in the loft of the newly renovated Reykjavík Cathedral and in 1848 the first national librarian, folklorist Jón Árnason, was hired to manage it. In 1847 the manuscript collection was started with the purchase of a large collection of manuscripts from the estate of bishop Steingrímur Jónsson. On the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the settlement of Iceland in 1874 the library received many gifts and in 1883 Jón Árnason estimated the total number of volumes in the library at 20,000.

In 1881 the library moved into the new house of parliament, Alþingishús, and in 1886 the first Icelandic print law establishing the library as a legal deposit library was passed by the Alþingi. After this the library grew fast and on its 100th anniversary in 1918 it counted 100,000 volumes. In 1906-1908 a special building, Safnahúsið, was erected to house the National Library, the National Museum, the Icelandic National Archives and the Icelandic Natural History Museum.

The library of the University of Iceland was formally established in 1940 when the university moved into the Main Building. Before that time the individual departments had their own libraries. At the time it was debated whether it was practical to develop two academic state libraries in Iceland and so in 1947 a committee was established to decide on a division of tasks between them. Soon, a merger of the two libraries was proposed and in 1956 a new committee was set up to prepare for this eventuality. It seemed clear that a new specially designed building close to the university would be required. The idea was that this new library building, Þjóðarbókhlaðan, would be opened in 1974, on the 1100th anniversary of the settlement of Iceland. The two libraries began working towards this end and through UNESCO library experts were consulted as to the requirements of the new building.

As the year 1974 drew near it became increasingly clear, however, that the Icelandic state would not be able to construct the building in time. The 1973 Oil Crisis, among other things, resulted in a worsening of the state's finances meaning that most of the ideas for the anniversary year had to be significantly reduced or scrapped. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new library was planned, instead of an inauguration, but even this was postponed until 1978 when construction finally began. Initially the building project proceeded well and in 1983 the building was complete on the outside. However, significant funds were needed to complete the interior and for the next ten years the large building stood empty. Attempts were made to finance its completion with a special supplement on property tax, but most of that income was used for other expenses. Finally in 1991 the new government of Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn and Alþýðuflokkurinn made it a priority to complete the building and on December 1, 1994, it finally opened.

While a lot of debate surrounded the building of Þjóðarbókhlaðan at the time, it resulted in vastly improved consultation, study and research facilities for researchers, university students and the general public in Iceland. The combination of the two libraries in one building resulted in an accessible library where users have direct access to the academic collection and reference works on the shelves while the national and manuscript collections are available for on-site consultation in a separate reading hall. While the study facilities of the University of Iceland have improved a lot since 1994, the library main building remains very popular with students.

From 1888 to 1979 the National Library published a list of new books acquired each year. In 1979 this was replaced by the Icelandic National Bibliography, containing an overview of Icelandic published books each year. In 1991 the two libraries implemented a joint online public access catalog system, Gegnir, gradually replacing the card catalogs. Since 2001 this system has been implemented nation-wide for all public libraries in Iceland and is managed by a consortium. As of 2008 Gegnir can also be consulted via the European Library.

Since 1996 the library has engaged in several large digitisation projects providing open access to antique maps of Iceland (1998), Timarit.is — journals and newspapers (2002 in collaboration with the National Library of the Faroe Islands and the National Library of Greenland), Handrit.is - a catalog and digital library of manuscripts (in collaboration with the Árni Magnússon Institute and the Arnamagnæan Collection) and the online Icelandic National Bibliography (2008) among others.