Since the start of the war, Dutch libraries have been accumulating a large collection of books and teaching materials for Ukrainian refugees. They vary from free printed and digital reading matter, to language aids, support for job-seekers, and meetings to make people feel at home in the Netherlands.

The year 2021 was the third year that the KB, National Library of the Netherlands, followed the Working with Words (2019-2022) policy plan. We continued working on the strategic priorities set out in this policy: setting the written word ‘out to work’ in society, taking care of the written word, organising the infrastructure for the written word and developing our organisation and networks.

The national digital public library was used well in the Netherlands last year. 84% of online library accounts borrowed at least one e-book or audio book. This is one of the conclusions of research carried out by the KB, National Library of the Netherlands, into the state of Dutch public libraries in 2021.