The KB National Library of the Netherlands is more than a library: it is a meeting place between centuries of cultural memory and the digital future. Founded in 1798, as a product of the Batavian Revolution, it is located in The Hague, the city of Justice and Peace.
As a national library the KB preserves everything published in and about the Netherlands: from medieval manuscripts and early printed books to web archives, e-books and born-digital heritage. Through platforms such as Delpher and DBNL, millions of pages from Dutch history and literature are freely accessible online worldwide. The KB is currently preparing for a major transformation of its physical spaces: alongside a large-scale renovation of its public spaces, it is developing a climate-neutral, robotised storage facility for the national library collection. The KB combines its heritage role with a strong public mission in the digital age. It works on long-term digital preservation, trustworthy access to information, artificial intelligence for cultural heritage, and public digital infrastructure.
The KB believes that the story of a country is not only written by great authors and institutions, but also by ordinary people, daily life and public debate. To encourage the interplay between past and future, we therefore now see it as our role not only to preserve the voices of the past for the future, but also to help people acquire the skills they need to interact with these voices and to help create spaces, physical as well as digital, where public debate can take place.
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