Origins
The first national libraries had their origins in the royal collections of the sovereign or some other supreme body of the state.
One of the first plans for a national library was devised by the See more

One of the main goals of a national library is fulfilling their nation's part of the common international goal of universal bibliographic control, by ensuring the bibliographic control of all the books or book-like documents published in that particular country or … See more

• List of national and state libraries
• Library assessment See more

• National Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
• Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) See more

The principle of legal deposit applies in some countries.
In the United Kingdom, the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 restates the Copyright Act 1911, that one copy of every book published there must be sent to the national library (the See more

Another one of the main goals of many a national library is the "export aspect" and the collaborative sides of the universal bibliographic control of all the books in the world. This is done … See more

• Humphreys, K. W. (1988). A National Library in Theory and in Practice. Panizzi Lectures 1987. London: British Library. ISBN 9780712301534. See more