The collection
KBR’s main collection of modern printed works contains the publications printed after 1830: a total of five million documents stored in 150 kilometres of stacks. The books from the collection can be consulted in the General Reading Room. Rare books printed after 1830 are kept at the Rare Books department.
Collection holdings
The contemporary printed books collection consists of two parts:
- The most important collection of Belgian publications, journals and magazines in the country, which, since 1966, includes the collections from the Legal Deposit.
- A collection of monographs, series and periodicals published abroad. Since 2001, the main focus of this collection is the humanities.
The collection is divided into different sub collections.
How to consult books
Online
- You can consult digitised documents online via Belgica.
- For full-text searches in our digitised journals and periodicals, please use BelgicaPeriodicals.
In the reading rooms
The books from this collection can only be consulted in the General Reading Room. Please refer to this page for all information on how to consult the collections and reserve your documents.
How does it work?Exhibitions
The Reading Room hosts small exhibitions throughout the year, featuring printed works from the collection. These exhibitions can be viewed at the entrance to the General Reading Room. You do not need a reader’s card to visit them.