The National Library's collection is a vast treasure chest of information and experiences about Norway, Norwegians and things Norwegian. And as the Norwegians have been and still are a travelling people, the collection is supplemented from the world at large.

You can find unique collections of manuscripts, special collections of books, music, radio and TV programmes, film , theatre, maps, posters, pictures, photographs and newspapers.

Everything from hides, parchments, paper documents, glass plates and other information carriers in all imaginable and unimaginable "old" formats – to digital documents, is stored safely to ensure that our cultural heritage can be transmitted to the coming generations. By collecting, safeguarding and making accessible the past for the future the National Library will be Norway's memory bank.

The oldest documents in the National Library collection are Magnus Lagabøters Landslov (Magnus Law-mender's Law of the Land) from the early 1300s and Psalteriet (David's psalms), a prayer book from Kvikne church north of Oslo. The oldest section of  Psalteriet was probably created in the 1200s.

The times between Magnus' Law-mender's Law of the Land and the Internet of today are filled with important national and international events. Many of these are brought closer to us through the National Library's collection. Our modern times also contribute strongly to the cultural heritage, much of it through the Internet. The National Library harvests documents from the Norwegian Internet domain .no and stores them in its digital long term repository.

While part of the collection is accessible only for scientific research and documentation, most is open in various ways to those interested all over the world. Books and microfilms are lent, and a substantial number of loans are handled by the automatic storage retrieval system, one of the world's most advanced such systems in a library. Other documents are available on the Internet, distributed through exhibitions, copies and other means.