Library black diamond. Royal Library of Denmark

Contains many historical documents. All works published in Denmark since the 17th century are stored in the library's collections.

Story

The library was founded around 1648 by King Frederick III on the basis of an extensive collection European works. Public access opened in 1793. In 1989, the library's collections were merged with the collections of the library of the University of Copenhagen, and in 2005 with the collections of the Danish National Library of Natural Sciences and Medicine (Dan. Danmarks Natur- og Lægevidenskabelige Bibliotek). Since January 1, 2006 it is officially called Royal Library, National Library and the library of the University of Copenhagen(dat. Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Nationalbibliotek og Københavns Universitetsbibliotek)

Today the library owns four buildings: three buildings at the University of Copenhagen and the main building on the island of Slotsholmen. The old building on the island of Slotsholmen was built in 1906. It is a copy of the chapel in the residence of Charlemagne (city). In 1999, a new building was built adjacent to the old one, called "Black Diamond"(dat. Den Sorte Diamant). Got its name from its appearance(built of black marble and glass). The building also houses concert hall.

Book theft

Between 1968 and 1978, one of the largest thefts was committed in the library. Unknown persons stole approximately 3200 history books worth about 50 million US dollars, including manuscripts of Martin Luther, first editions of Immanuel Kant, Thomas More and John Milton. The loss was discovered only in 1975. Between 1998 and 2002, stolen copies worth approx. $2 million. In September 2003, it was possible to track down the thief from a lot put up at a Christie's auction in England. He turned out to be library employee Frede Møller-Kristensen (died in February 2003). Trade stolen books after his death family members continued. During a search of their house, 1,500 stolen copies were found. In 2004–2005 they were sentenced to prison terms (from 18 months to 3 years).

• Address: Soren Kierkegaards Plads, 1, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Telephone: +45 33 47 47 47
• Official site: www.kb.dk
• Working hours: 8.00-22:00, Sunday – closed
• Date of foundation: 1648
• Founder: King Frederick III

In 1648, the Royal Library was founded by the Danish king Frederick III. It was he who became the first to fill it with collected works by European authors. It would not be superfluous to note that today it is one of the largest libraries in Scandinavia. In addition, many historical documents that have been printed in Denmark since the 17th century are stored here.

It was opened in 1793 public access, in other words, anyone over the age of 18 could visit the library. And 1989 became a turning point for her: her fund was merged with the funds of the University of Copenhagen, and 9 years ago - with the funds of the Danish National Library of Medicine and Natural Sciences.

Today it bears the following official names: the Royal Library, the National Library of Denmark, and the Library of the University of Copenhagen.

When you see this structure for the first time, the first thing that comes to mind is the association with a black diamond. This modern building consists of two cubes that are slightly tilted forward. Such beauty is created from black marble and glass. One of the parts of the building, which can be called the ancestor of the modern Royal Library, is designed in a medieval style.

The modern Black Diamond was built in 1999 and designed famous architects: Lassen, Schmidt and Hammer. In addition, the cube has irregular shape: It expands from bottom to top and from north to south. The new building is connected to the old one through three glass passages, which are located above Christians Brygge street.

The Royal Danish Library is a treasure trove of such treasures as:

• Gutenberg Bible;
• archives of the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard;
• collection of works the famous Karl Linnaeus;
• correspondence and writings of Hans Christian Andersen;
• medieval manuscripts;
• collection of original foreign publications;
• diaries of famous personalities.

Once inside the Black Diamond, it is impossible to take your eyes off the 8-story atrium, which has a wave-like shape. It is worth noting that its outer side is made of glass and it “looks” at the area and the Christianshaun River. And at the entrance to reading rooms visitors will be enchanted by the fresco painted by Danish artist Per Kirkeby. It is worth noting that its size is 210 m2.

You won’t believe it, the libraries of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmö (Sweden) gave me an incredible feeling of freedom, liberation and the feeling of being a full-fledged person.
Thanks to the Nordic Council of Ministers, I was able to join a delegation of Kaliningrad librarians who went to learn from their Scandinavian neighbors. I assure you, these were the best 3 days of this year.
If you think you know everything about libraries, then after reading this post, I hope you will make at least one discovery for yourself, expand your ideas about what is possible.

Our first destination was Royal Library Copenhagen, where everything is stored printed publications, produced in the country since the 17th century. The National Library should look royal, although, looking at the “Black Diamond” (1999), made in high-tech style, you don’t think about royal luxury, unless you know, of course, that no expense was spared in its construction: black granite and marble were brought from Africa, processed in Italy, glass was made in Germany.
The first thing that catches your eye is, of course, great amount parked bicycles at the entrance to the building, but, as you know, you quickly get used to good things, so then you are not at all surprised that even at the Copenhagen Parliament there is a concentration of not cars, but bicycles.

Walking inside, I wanted to gasp. Window! From floor to ceiling on several floors. Incredible beauty is revealed to the eye, and at this time, the usual Danish student is calmly sipping coffee, sitting on the ground floor at a table in a cafe. Another was able to find a cozy place, shielding himself from the sounds of the outside world with headphones, on a glass walkway above the road connecting the two library buildings.

We were incredibly lucky that one of the employees kindly invited us to look into the book depository; the feeling of being part of something great was complemented by his words that, for example, today he was holding in his hands a book worth 70 million Danish kroner. Thanks to Wikipedia I also found out. that around the 70s of the last century one of the largest thefts occurred in the library. 3,200 historical books worth a total of $20 million were missing, including manuscripts of Martin Luther, first editions of Immanuel Kant, Thomas More and John Milton.

Every year the library fund is replenished by 15 book kilometers, and periodicals- 3 km.
The next picture reminds me of the movie “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” where one of the heroines says that the best place for meeting men - smoking room Lenin Library. Of course, we didn’t see the smoking room, but the hall somehow vaguely evoked the academic atmosphere of Leninka. By the way, photography is prohibited in this room; I had to “peep” through the glass doors.

Among other things, the library has a concert hall and a small shop, but we hurried to showroom, for the design of which they invited just anyone, but Russian designer Andrey Bartenev. (By the way, I noticed that the Danes react very positively to the Russians.)
The fact is that the library really wanted to please visitors with its treasures in the form of ancient books, but at the same time, the staff understood that if they were displayed in a boring manner, the books would not attract the attention they deserve, so they turned to the help of a Russian creative.

When you enter the hall, you are immediately lost from the abundance of colors, so the first thing you pay attention to is the figure of a man (although it is difficult to recognize the figure there), standing in white shorts, in front of which stands a menacing-looking man with his mouth open polar bear, on whose bottom hangs a book that serves as a screen for showing b/w animation. The librarians are shocked and discuss this art object with particular fervor. No matter what they say, whether it’s good or bad, the author achieved his goal, the audience did not leave for 15 - 20 minutes and studied which books framed such a strange composition.

Pale busts of writers function as screens, and Andersen appears to come to life by having a video feed of a library director speaking onto his face, a stunning effect.

On the same day, from the center of Copenhagen we moved to a disadvantaged area of ​​​​the city where a large number of refugees and migrants. We dubbed it Baltrayon, although, of course, our Baltic region can only dream of such a library, but in comparison with the Royal one, it certainly looked contrasting. Rentemesterwei Library.

The first thing that catches your eye is, of course, the funny readers depicted in graphite on the walls of the building, both inside and outside. These pictures were made specifically for the library street artist, known in Denmark and other countries under the pseudonym HuskMitNavn (English: "Remember my name", Russian: "Remember my name"). Graffiti artists do not disclose their real names due to the fact that their “rock” art is prosecuted by law.

The tour of the library was interesting, except for the nuance that the employee conducting it did not find answers to most of the questions. For example, who painted the library courtyard: with the consent of the library itself, or is this an unauthorized illegal invasion? I was surprised that the employee had no ideas for the proposal; was he really not interested in this issue himself? The spirit of Baltrayon was constantly in the air...

But despite various misunderstandings, I always work in the library various services, helping to find answers to all sorts of questions (for example, legal) and help immigrants adapt. Volunteers help these children with their homework. received at school. The library also offers passports, driver's licenses, and social security cards.

In this library, as in all others, it is possible to order the necessary literature on the Internet. Books are put aside at a special order stand, and the reader can come and pick them up at any time, while serving himself using a computer by recording books on his electronic card.

As you have probably already noticed, each library in Denmark has its own feature, it is individual and unique in its own way, and has a mark of the place, area in which it is located. There was no exception Thornby library, located in the private sector of Copenhagen. Children's and adults' rooms are cleverly combined here, offering the opportunity to visit the library with the whole family. But, again, I’ll start with what first catches your eye. Undoubtedly this is a hall with a glass dome where you can eat.

There are no boundaries between the adult and children's rooms, so free and comfortable movement is possible throughout the library. At the same time, no one bothers each other. The library has special sensors that monitor noise levels. As soon as the norm is exceeded, a red light immediately lights up, which gives a signal to the violator to correct it.

Let's leave the libraries of Denmark for a while and go to Sweden, to the town of Malmö, where we were presented with the central library and one located on the outskirts.

Let's start with Library Garage, located in a disadvantaged area of ​​Malmö, like the Rentemestervei library in Copenhagen, filled with immigrants.

Until the 90s of the last century, the premises housed a depot for electric trains, which by that time had been disbanded. The district administration began to think about what could be organized in this building. To get an answer to this question, we turned to the residents of the area for ideas. Most of them saw a library there.

We arrived at a not very good time, during renovations, but we still appreciated all the delights. Bookshelves have wheels, so they can be easily moved to any point, this allows the library to perform its functions during the day, and in the evening transform into a stage for performances and various events. Events are held third parties almost every evening, admission is free. Besides social function, educational, the library also carries cultural. At the same time, anyone can rent library premises free of charge, but according to the terms of the contract, all things must be put in their places by the next morning. There is a lot of trust in our own readers, despite the fact that the area is disadvantaged. In case of damage to property, everything is always compensated by those who caused the damage.

Malmö City Library reminiscent in its functions of the Royal Library of Copenhagen, it also has an academic spirit and presence large number students, however, in my opinion, it seemed more comfortable.

My perfectly white socks did not change their shade at all after traveling around the hall with them, and it was incredibly pleasant to feel the softness of the grass-like carpet through them.

Before the opening, we actively collaborated with the nearby shopping center, where every resident of the area was invited to take a photograph, and then a collage was created from the collected photographs to decorate the entrance of the library. And you really do feel at home.

On the shelves with books there are computers with which you can find any book of interest. This makes it possible to feel free and does not impose mandatory communication with the librarian. Also in the library in different points There are computers with maps; by clicking on a specific point of interest, you can find out about all the events that took place in a particular place, while viewing photo and video materials uploaded by the residents of the area themselves.

A stand with books ordered online is located in the farthest corner of the library (like bread in a supermarket) so that the visitor passes by books with attractive covers and lingers inside the library. Library staff do everything possible to attract the attention of readers and make them stay at least for a while within the walls of the library.

For example, the hall with periodicals is clearly visible to high school students, whose path to school runs past it. So in the library they hung a huge TV on the wall, next to it were covers of various magazines, children’s drawings and simply bright colored sheets of paper, as well as bright and soft armchairs that could be seen with the naked eye from the street.

In this library, like no other amazingly Psychology and trading combine. Have you ever thought that libraries can also “sell” themselves? It should be noted that in Denmark and Sweden there are special faculties for librarianship, and employees with particular zeal study the experience of libraries from other countries, adopt it, and embody some ideas in their own countries. The libraries of Scandinavia are considered to be among the best in Europe, however, the neighbors from the Nordic countries themselves admit that Holland has begun to overtake.

The Royal Library of Denmark is, in fact, a real museum books. Its collections contain only 4,500 incunabula, volumes published before 1501. Cataloging of the collection was undertaken in early XIX century. Now there are 530 thousand handwritten cards and 159 large registers (266 volumes), covering all types of items.

In 1648, the collection of King Frederick III accumulated so many manuscripts that the monarch decided to establish a library at court, and in 1793 it was opened to public access. Later, in 1989, the library’s collections were combined with the library of the local university, and in 2005 with collections on natural science and medicine. It is not surprising that the library occupies four buildings. The main thing (however, like the old one) is on the island of Slotsholmen. In Denmark it is called the “Black Diamond”, as it is made of black granite and glass, and it also houses a concert hall.

The library is akin to a museum, here you can find almost all the works of Danish playwrights, databases with the repertoire of the leading theaters in Copenhagen since 1722, a digitized collection of periodicals and sheet music. The Rare Books Department is based on the old Royal Collection, containing all types of Danish and foreign manuscripts from early Middle Ages until the 18th century. Special attention The letters and manuscripts of the Danish and Norwegian poets and prose writers Möller, Ibsen and Andersen deserve to be appreciated.

The Oriental Collections of the Royal Library contain manuscripts, blocks of prints and printed books in the languages ​​of Asia and North Africa. Books were purchased specifically to study the language, religion and culture of distant countries. These are Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Caucasian (mainly Armenian and Georgian) texts, there are ancient manuscripts from Tibet and Mongolia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, printed books in Vietnamese.

Richly presented rare books in history and art - drama, opera, ballet, circus and other forms of performing arts. The Royal Library has a significant collection of digital resources from its own collection, including digital facsimiles and web exhibitions. Such invaluable funds were not ignored by scammers. In 1978, it turned out that 3,200 copies published from 1501 to 1949 had disappeared from the repository. The cost of the loss is $50 million.

Some of the books have still not been found, while others were intercepted at expensive auctions. By the way, as it turned out over the course of a whole decade, books were stolen by one of the library employees. A list of missing volumes has been published on the website of the Royal Library of Denmark; even after decades, the hope of returning antique publications does not fade.