The Royal Library National Library of Sweden

What The Royal Library National Library of Sweden does

The Royal Library, Kungliga biblioteket (KB), is Sweden's national library and a state authority under the Ministry of Culture, formally established as an independent agency in 1877 with collections tracing back to the Vasa kings in the 16th century and reinforced by Sweden's 1661 legal-deposit (pliktleverans) mandate. Its core products are interconnected national catalog and access platforms: Libris (a national bibliographic catalog covering approximately 600 Swedish libraries, rebuilt in 2018 on Bibframe 2.0 and relaunched as a new search service in May 2026), Regina (printed materials), Svensk mediedatabas (audio, moving image, and games), Svenska tidningar (newspapers from the 1600s onward), KB Digitalt (digitized image and text collections), KB Play (a Mediaflow-powered streaming service for films and sector training), Swepub and Publicera (national research-publication and open-access journal infrastructure, the latter built on Open Journal Systems), plus Bläddra (a reading app with minority-language content), Världens bibliotek (multilingual digital lending), Digiteket (sector learning), ISBN Sverige, and Kulturarw3 (web archiving since 1997). Research infrastructure includes KB-labb, a digital data laboratory applying BERT-based NLP to the collections. KB's business model is government appropriation: as a public institution it provides services free of charge to Swedish libraries, researchers, and citizens, and coordinates sector-wide functions including the Bibsamkonsortiet licensing consortium and the 2024 national guidelines for open science; all expansion is mandate-driven rather than revenue-driven.

Name

The Royal Library National Library of Sweden

Legal name

Kungliga biblioteket

Website

https://kb.se

Company type

Private

Founded year

1877

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Kungliga biblioteket (KB) is Sweden's national library, a government agency that collects, catalogs, preserves, and provides free public access to all Swedish publications and cultural-heritage materials across 600+ partner libraries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

National Library Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Periodical Publishers (513120)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Libraries & Information Services (BPAIACAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF), Academic & Research Library Operations (College/University Libraries) (EDAEAGAB), Library Collections & Cataloging Services (Acquisitions, Metadata, Circulation) (EDAEAGAE)

Keywords

• National library services
• Digital preservation
• Bibliographic cataloging
• Cultural heritage archives
• Open access publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Appropriation: KB is a Swedish government agency funded through state appropriations. As a public institution, services are provided free of charge to citizens.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Royal Library (Kungliga biblioteket, KB) is Sweden's national library and a state authority that collects, describes, preserves, and makes accessible all material published in Sweden under its legal deposit mandate. It operates national bibliographic infrastructure (Libris, Regina, SMDB), research and open-access platforms (Swepub, Publicera, KB-labb), digital preservation and access services (KB Digitalt, KB Play, Svenska tidningar), and reading room facilities in Stockholm, while also coordinating sector-wide library development and licensing through Bibsamkonsortiet.

Product overview

The Royal Library National Library of Sweden (Kungliga biblioteket, KB) operates as a unified platform of interconnected library and research services. The core offerings include catalog systems (Libris for ~600 Swedish libraries, Regina for printed materials, SMDB for audiovisual media, Svenska tidningar for newspapers), digital access platforms (KB Digitalt for digitized collections, KB Play for streaming content), and research infrastructure (Swepub for publications, Publicera for open-access journals, KB-labb for AI/data analysis). Additional services include the reading app Bläddra with minority language content, Världens bibliotek for multilingual digital books, Digiteket for professional learning, ISBN registration, and web archiving via Kulturarw3. These services collectively enable KB to fulfill its mission of collecting, preserving, and providing access to Sweden's published cultural heritage.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Regina: KB's catalog of printed materials including books, journals and other printed items.
• Libris
• Svensk mediedatabas (SMDB)
• Svenska tidningar
• KB Digitalt
• KB Play
• Swepub
• Publicera
• Bläddra

Products and services

• Regina KB's catalog for printed materials including books, journals, and other printed materials, used by researchers and the general public to search KB's collections.
• Libris National bibliographic search service allowing users to find materials from approximately 600 Swedish libraries. Rebuilt in 2018 using Bibframe 2.0 and linked open data, with a new search service launched in May 2026.
• Svensk mediedatabas (SMDB) KB's catalog for audio, moving images, and computer games, providing access to Sweden's audiovisual media collections.
• Svenska tidningar Searchable archive of Swedish newspapers from the 1600s onwards, with the oldest available for download from home.
• KB Digitalt Search platform for thousands of digitized images and texts from KB's collections, with most material freely available for use.
• KB Play Streaming service from KB for films from national library collections, lectures, training, and information films for library sector staff.
• Swepub National discovery service for research publications from Swedish universities and research institutions, containing metadata for scientific articles, books, reports, and doctoral dissertations.
• Publicera National digital platform for open-access Swedish scientific journals, built on Open Journal Systems (OJS), providing infrastructure support for Swedish journals to transition to open-access publishing.
• Bläddra Reading app providing access to e-books and audiobooks, including content in Swedish national minority languages (Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Yiddish), with over 1,700 loans of minority language content.
• Världens bibliotek Digital library service providing digital books in multiple languages, jointly managed by KB and MTM (Swedish Agency for Accessible Media) and transitioning to direct KB operation from January 2026.
• Digiteket Learning platform providing courses for library staff and sector professionals, including courses on open science and library services, operated jointly by KB, Kulturrådet, and MTM.
• KB-labb Digital data laboratory for researchers to perform text, audio, and image analysis on KB's collections as research methods, working with artificial intelligence including BERT language models.
• Kulturarw3 Cultural heritage web archiving project collecting Swedish web pages for preservation, started in 1997 among the first initiatives of its kind globally.
• ISBN Sverige KB's ISBN registration service for Sweden, responsible for issuing ISBN prefixes to Swedish publishers.

Quantifiable outcome

• UNESCO Memory of the World recognition for three collections
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• University Libraries (Lund, Göteborg, Stockholm, Uppsala, Umeå)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Collaboration on digitization of Swedish printed materials. Universities signed declaration in 2020 to work together on digitization of the Swedish printed heritage for democratic society and research purposes.
• Filmarkivet (Swedish Film Institute)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011Filmarkivet in Grängesberg, a cultural historical archive for non-fiction Swedish films from associations, companies, municipalities, archives, museums and private individuals, was taken over by KB in 2011.
• Statens ljud- och bildarkiv (SLBA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2009The National Sound and Image Archive merged with KB in 2009, giving KB new functions as both national library and archive for sound and image. The merger strengthened KB's digitization competencies and expanded the collections to include audiovisual materials.
• BibsamkonsortietcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKB coordinates Bibsamkonsortiet, a consortium for licensing electronic journals, databases, and e-books for Swedish research organizations. Manages contracts with major publishers including Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, and others.
• Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernmental agency that funds research. Collaborates with KB on open science, research data management, and national research infrastructure. Uses Swepub for statistics, follow-up and evaluation.
• Universitetskanslersämbetet (UKÄ)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwedish Higher Education Authority. Uses Swepub for statistical analysis, monitoring and evaluation of Swedish higher education institutions.
• SUHF (Swedish Association of Higher Education)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwedish Association of Universities and Universities Colleges. Collaborates with KB on Swepub governance and development, and coordinates university positions on transformative agreements and open access.
• Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier (MTM)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwedish Agency for Accessible Media. Extended collaboration on library services and digital books. MTM takes technical responsibility for the service Världens bibliotek from 2025.
• Kulturrådet (Swedish Arts Council)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernmental cultural agency. New agreement for Digiteket learning platform between KB, Kulturrådet, and MTM.
• Svenska FilminstitutetminorOthersSwedish Film Institute. Previously administered Filmarkivet before KB took over the archive in 2011.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• British Library: The UK national library, operating legal deposit, national bibliographic services, and major digital research infrastructure. Most directly comparable peer as a major European national library with extensive digitization, research services, and heritage collection.
• Nasjonalbiblioteket (National Library of Norway): Norway's national library, also a Nordic peer operating legal deposit, the Bokhylla digital lending program, and the N-gram research infrastructure (NB N-gram). Closely comparable in mandate, Nordic governance model, and digital service orientation.
• Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF): France's national library, operating Gallica (mass digitization), legal deposit, and major research infrastructure. Comparable in scale of collections, mandate, and the breadth of digital heritage services offered.
• National Library of Finland: Finland's national library, operating legal deposit, national bibliography, and digital services. Closely comparable Nordic peer with similar mandate scope and public-sector funding model.
• Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: Germany's national library with two legal deposit sites (Leipzig, Frankfurt). Comparable as a major European national library with extensive bibliographic infrastructure and digital services.
• Det Kongelige Bibliotek (Royal Danish Library): Denmark's national library, formed from the merger of the Royal Library and the State and University Library. Directly comparable as a Nordic national library with similar legal deposit mandate, digitization programs, and shared cultural-heritage scope.

Others

• Europeana: EU-funded digital cultural heritage platform aggregating content from European libraries, archives, and museums. Comparable in mission of providing digital access to cultural heritage, but functions as an aggregator/portal rather than a primary collection holder.
• HathiTrust: Large-scale collaborative digital preservation repository serving academic and research libraries. Comparable in digital preservation mission and shared infrastructure model, but focused on academic/research content rather than national heritage.

Broad incumbents

• Library of Congress: The US national library, the world's largest. Comparable in mandate and bibliographic authority role, but operates at materially larger scale and with broader international reach than KB.

Emerging players

• OCLC: Global library cooperative providing WorldCat and shared cataloging services. Comparable as a bibliographic infrastructure provider, but operates as a membership cooperative rather than a national statutory authority.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/kungbib
• Facebookfacebook.com/kungligabiblioteket
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/277817
• Instagraminstagram.com/kungligabiblioteket

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Royal Library National Library of Sweden