Library

The Bushuis library is the combined library of the KNAW institutes Meertens Instituut and Huygens ING. The library is freely accessible from Tuesday to Thursday, between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The visiting address is Kloveneniersburgwal 48 (Bushuis), Amsterdam.
The library is situated on the third floor. Take the elevator on the left in the hall of the Bushuis.
The Bushuis library works closely together with the neighbouring NIAS library.

The Bushuis/NIAS library catalog can be consulted online.
In the catalog you will find the location (‘signatuur’) of books and magazines on the right hand side of the screen. Titles with a location code starting with the designation ‘depot’ are elsewhere and must be requested. You can do so by sending an e-mail with the desired titles. The standard delivery time of material from the depot is several days to a week.

The Bushuis library is primarily a research library. Over 90,000 books and more than 3,500 journal titles are permanently available for research. The library does not lend books to persons outside the Institute. It is possible to make photocopies or scans (if the original materials are not too brittle).

Content of the collection

The Bushuis library collection is in line with the institutes’ research fields. The Meertens Institute is aimed at the field of Dutch language and culture. The focus is on the phenomena that shape everyday life in our society. The main areas are language variation (including a large sub-collection on dialects of Dutch) and ethnology (including literature on national folks songs and folk stories). In addition, the library has a collection in the field of onomastics (literature on first and last names and geographical names). The Huygens Institute collection contains books and journals in the fields of history, literature and history of science.