National Library

The Royal Library of Belgium is the national library of Belgium. It is located in Brussels along with most of the national agencies in Belgium. According to the library’s mission statement, its purpose is to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage and to acquire Belgian publications. The library promotes international collaboration and access to scientific information (Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, 2010). The library has specifically states that it has a user centered approach and is dedicated to meeting their needs.

It is the Belgian equivalent of the Library of Congress and has a copy of all the publications that are published in Belgium or by a Belgian in another country. The Royal Library is the national Belgian center and is in charge of assigning and cataloging the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) of Belgian published documents. It is also the “dépôt légal” or legal deposit of Belgium and is the center for information concerning the rules and regulations of publishing material in Belgium. Special collections includes six sections or cabinets: precious reserves, maps and plans, music, manuscriptsm, engravings and chalcography (engravings on brass or copper). There is also the Fondation Roi Baudouin that holds an extensive collection of bronze medallions and plaques from antiquity. Online resources include Publications électroniques (Swets) and the Academic Research Library (ARL). The library has only recently started to include online databases into their collection. It also has a database called Digitool which is a “digital assessment management” tool. Unlike the Royale Libraries traditional catalogue this online database includes search tools such as Truncation, Boolean Operators, Parentheses, and Proximity Operators.


Bibliothèque royale de Belgique. (2010). Catalogues. Missions et gestion. Retrieved from http://www.kbr.be/catalogues/catalogues_fr.html