Library and archives

Our book collection covers Norwegian shipping and trading history, boat building, shipbuilding, coastal culture, maritime archaeology, ship preservation, pilot-, port- and rescue corps, maritime art, and seamen's memoirs. In addition, the library tries to cover new releases on the merchant fleet in wartime, Norwegian fishing history and Norwegian polar expeditions. The library subscribes to relevant journals within shipping, boat culture, ship preservation, cultural heritage, archaeology, and local history.

The library's collection includes over 30 000 articles, 24 000 book-titles and about 1400 current periodicals, all registered in the library system Tidemann.

The library is open by appointment only.

The museum’s collections include archives from various maritime fields. We have archives from ship-owners, shipyards and marine insurance companies, as well as ship logs and charts. A thematically organized information archive and printed and electronic shipping registers are widely used sources of information. The museum has an important collection of boat and ship drawings as well as an extensive photo archive.