[4] It contains numerous historical treasures, and a copy of all works printed in Denmark since the 17th century are deposited there.

[5][6] The library was founded in 1648 by King Frederik III,[7] who contributed a comprehensive collection of European works.

[8] Later librarians included J. H. Schlegel, Jon Erichsen, Daniel Gotthilf Moldenhawer (1787-1823 notorious for stealing numerous books to enrich the library collections) and Chr.

[12] Books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets and corporate publications, manuscripts and archives, maps, prints and photographs, music scores, documentation of folkways and popular traditions, four annual electronic copies of the Danish Internet by legal deposit.

[1] The online catalogue, in combination with the reading room, is still patrons' most direct form of access to the collections.

The annual budget: 394M Danish Kroner (58M US Dollars), including building expenses and maintenance.

In between, there is an eight-storey atrium whose walls are white and wave-shaped, with a couple of transversal corridors that link both sides, and balconies on every floor.

The atrium's exterior wall is made of glass; so, you can see the sea; and, on the opposite shore, you can see Christianshavn's luxury buildings.

The holdings include an almost complete collection of all Danish printed books back from 1482.

The library holds treasures which are inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register: A collection of about 2,000 books by and about Carl Linné (1997);[14] the manuscripts and correspondence of Hans Christian Andersen (1997);[15] the Søren Kierkegaard Archives (manuscripts and personal papers) (1997); Guamán Poma de Ayala's El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno, an autographed manuscript of 1,200 pages including 400 full-page drawings depicting the indigenous point of view on pre-conquest Andean life and Inca rule, the Spanish conquest in 1532, early Spanish colonial rule, and the systematic abuse of the rights of the indigenous population (2007).

(2011);[17] Other treasures are the Copenhagen Psalter, the Dalby Gospel Book, the Angers fragment (parts of Denmark's first national chronicle), and maps of the Polar Region.