The earliest collections originated from the library of the National Museum, opened in 1868 and formerly operated by the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences.

[4][5] The origins of the national library date back to the 1778 foundation of the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, the first of its kind in Asia.

Through its promotion of scholarship in the Dutch East Indies, the society created numerous publications and accumulated a number of collections, including establishing a library.

After increasing its collections during the first half of the 19th century, the society and its library moved in 1868 to a new location at the current National Museum at Merdeka Square.

Attempts to divert some collections to the new Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) were resisted by members.

Because authorities also upheld the library's powers of legal deposit, it holds a substantial collection of official wartime publication.

[8] The National Library of Indonesia was created through a 1980 decree by the Minister of Education and Culture Daoed Joesoef.

Membership cards and books are equipped with Radio-frequency identification devices for security and to monitor the inventory.

At the entrance of the main building, there is a plaza, four large rooms, two each on the right and left, displaying the history of Indonesian reading.

Next to the script room, there is a room that presents an explanation of the development of writing media as well as items that bear witness to history, such as bamboo writing media, alim wood, lontar leaves, gebang, dluwang daluwang, European paper to Chinese paper.

Rows of paintings of Indonesian presidents are hung in the lobby, which features a bookcase reaching to the fourth floor.

The 21st and 22nd floors are allocated for books for military, religion, literature, novels, computer techniques, health and languages.

The eighth floor contains audiovisual room with facilities of enjoying films from different genres or read old newspapers from the 1800s and more in microfilm form.

National responsibility for science belongs to the Centre for Scientific Documentation and Information (Pusat Dokumentasi dan Informasi Ilmiah).

[16] Under the national library, Indonesia began its own International Standard Book Number and Cataloging in Publication programs.

[8] In January 2017, the National Library of Indonesia partnered with Neliti, a freely available repository of publications from Indonesian research institutions.