Landsbókasavnið (National Library)

Landsbókasavnið (National Library of the Faroe Islands) is located at J.C. Svabosgøta 16 on the fringe of the centre of Tórshavn. The building from 1980 was designed by J.P. Gregoriussen. It has its origins in Færø Amts Bibliotek (the Faroe County Library) from 1828 and is considered the Faroe Islands’ oldest cultural heritage institution. In 1931, the library moved into the newly built library building on Debesartrøð.

The National Library was established by a Løgting Act in 1952 and is both a national and central library and has an audiobook service for people with visual and reading disabilities, just as it is in charge of paying public lending right fees. It has an extensive collection of manuscripts from Faroese authors and also has a collection of older manuscripts, including an edition of Sandoyarbók, on permanent loan from the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen, with some of the oldest copies of the Faroese ballads about Charlemagne.

Landsbókasavnið is a research library, and with the planning of a new campus for Fróðskaparsetur Føroya (University of the Faroe Islands), the current intentions are for it to also become a university library. Most towns and large villages have public libraries or combined public and school libraries.

Further reading

• Association activities and volunteering on the Faroe Islands
• Building style on the Faroe Islands
• Churches on the Faroe Islands
• Crafts and design on the Faroe Islands
• Languages and dialects on the Faroe Islands
• Literature on the Faroe Islands
• Museums of cultural history and heritage on the Faroe Islands
• Religion and religious communities on the Faroe Islands
• Tjóðsavnið
• Tjóðskjalasavnið
• Tradition and tales on the Faroe Islands
• Visual arts on the Faroe Islands

Read more about Culture on the Faroe Islands