Libraries

The Brussels-Capital Region’s cultural life is essentially centred on the two linguistic communities: the French Community and the Dutch-speaking Flemish Community.

These two institutions run libraries, too, where you can loan books and more often than not CDs and DVDs as well. You can go online at most public libraries or read reference works and magazines.

• In Brussels there are around sixty bhg.common.blank_link_warningbook libraries (FR) and five bhg.common.blank_link_warning"PointCulture" and multimedia libraries (FR) where you can loan CDs, DVDs and games.
• Public libraries generally have a children’s section, but French speakers also have access to a dedicated children’s literature centre, the bhg.common.blank_link_warningCentre de Littérature de Jeunesse de Bruxelles (FR).
• The bhg.common.blank_link_warningArchives et Musée de la Littérature (FR) preserves and promotes the works of Belgian authors writing in French.

• There are twenty or so bhg.common.blank_link_warningapproved libraries (NL), spread throughout the 19 Brussels communes. Some of them also loan out CDs, DVDs and CD-ROMs.
• The bhg.common.blank_link_warningArchief en Museum van het Vlaams leven te Brussel (NL) preserves examples of the intangible cultural heritage of Dutch speakers living in Brussels, such as works by Flemish authors and printers, as well as documents of the Flemish movement in Brussels.

• The bhg.common.blank_link_warningRoyal Library of Belgium stocks a copy of every Belgian publication (FR/NL) and an extensive collection of old manuscripts, engravings and letters.
• The visually impaired can visit the bhg.common.blank_link_warningbilingual library of the Ligue Braille (FR/NL) or the bhg.common.external_link_warningEqla (FR).
• If you are looking for scientific works, you can use the university and college libraries. The City of Brussels also has a bhg.common.blank_link_warningLibrary of Science and Technology (FR) , a bhg.common.blank_link_warningLibrary of art (FR) and a bhg.common.blank_link_warningLibrary of Teaching (FR).
• Most museums also have a specialised documentation centre or a library, like the bhg.common.blank_link_warningBelgian Comic Strip Center.

Most cultural centres of foreign embassies in Brussels have a documentation centre or a library. Some of them may also have DVDs and CDs in their own national language.