News

On 9 September, a donation of books to the National and University Library of Iceland was presented on behalf of READ JAPAN PROJECT 2025, a project that aims to promote knowledge and understanding of Japan. The Library received 44 books in English on Japanese society, history, culture, literature, language, politics and international affairs, as well…

The poet Natasha S. has received the May Star Poetry Award, the poetry prize of the Writers’ Union of Iceland and the National and University Library of Iceland, for her poetry collection Mara kemur í heimsókn (Mara Comes to Visit). The award was presented at a ceremony today in Þjóðarbókhlaða, the library building at Arngrímsgata…

Today it is 180 years since a manuscript collection was established within the National Library, today the National and University Library of Iceland. On this day in 1846, King Christian VIII of Denmark (1786–1848) authorised funds to buy the manuscript collection of Valgerður Jónsdóttir (1771–1856), a bishop’s widow, for the Library: 393 volumes in all.…

We would like to draw your attention to the Icelandic Literature Center’s reading campaign “Bókaðu stund fyrir bók” (Book a moment for a book) The aim is to get more adults reading books across the country and to encourage as many people as possible to experience and enjoy what reading brings to each of us.…

At the beginning of January the Manuscript Collection received 94 manuscripts as a donation. They contain rímur (Icelandic narrative verse), chivalric sagas and later legendary sagas, most of them written between about 1870 and 1910, but some are older. The collection shows the hands of various well-known scribes, such as Níels skáldi Jónsson (1782–1857), Gísli…

On 13 October, Steingrímur Jónsson presented the National and University Library of Iceland with the Swedish book history journal Biblis, published since 1957, as a gift. It was Föreningen för bokhantverk that published the journal at first, as an annual, up to 1997. The friends’ association of the National Library of Sweden – which is…

International Open Access Week is celebrated from October 20–26, under the theme “Who Owns Our Knowledge?”. The focus is on access to knowledge and ownership in contemporary society, and how we can work together to ensure equitable access to research outputs. To mark the week, the National and University Library of Iceland and partner institutions…

WE ARE MANY is an exhibition put on by the Women’s History Archives that celebrates the 50-year anniversary of the collection’s foundation and opens 17 October at 15:00. The Women’s History Archives was established on January 1st 1975, in a 4th-floor flat on Hjarðarhagi, Reykjavík, that was home to Anna Sigurðardóttir. The founding of the…

The website openaccess.is has been updated. It has the latest information on the state of open access in Iceland, and guidance on open access matters for professionals and researchers, students and the public. The aim of the update is to make information about open access easier for users to find and to make the website…

Have you, or someone you know, published a book? Been involved in publishing a journal or music? We may have copies of it, or we may not – and if not, we would be glad to receive copies to preserve.  Want to know more? You can read more about legal deposit on the Library’s website or e-mail the…

Since 18 August, parking has been charged for in the car parks at Þjóðarbókhlaða, the library building at Arngrímsgata 3, as in all other car parks on the University of Iceland campus (see the map below).  The car park at Birkimelur is exempt from charges for the time being, as it belongs to the City…

The National and University Library of Iceland in cooperation with The Writers’ Union of Iceland awards a prize for a book of poetry published in the year 2024. The prize, entitled the May Star Poetry Award, was presented for the seventh time at a ceremony at the National Library on 14 May. The May Star…