Nota — Denmark's National Library for Print Disabilities, Now 261,000 Members Strong

Nota is Denmark's national library for people who cannot read ordinary printed text. Founded in 1924 as a state print shop and library for the blind and renamed Nota in 2009, it produces and lends books, periodicals, newspapers, leaflets and sheet music as audio, braille and electronic text. Eligibility rests on a documented visual or reading disability. Its mission is anchored in the Finance Act and the Library Services Act. On 1 January 2024 Nota was merged into the Royal Danish Library (KB) and now operates as 'KB's Nota-service'.
Reach and scale (Royal Danish Library annual report 2024, key figures R2021→R2024): members rose from 200,879 to 261,465; audiobooks on offer from 29,956 to 32,341; loans were 2,688,047 (2021), 2,113,398 (2022), 2,221,091 (2023) and 2,059,707 (2024). Nota also provides specially adapted study materials for dyslexic pupils in primary school and for students with visual or reading disabilities in upper-secondary and higher education, and has digitised over 3,000 braille music titles available worldwide. The 2024 merger added about 90 FTEs and roughly DKK 47 million in carried-over surplus to KB.
Cautionary note: KB itself states that 2022–2024 loan figures are not representative of a normal level. After a November 2021 decision of the Copyright Licence Tribunal and until a final agreement with rightsholders in summer 2023, Nota held back new titles because of budget uncertainty, and publication resumed only in autumn 2023. KB regards 2019 as the last normal year and expects recovery in 2025, subject to changed usage patterns from a new encryption solution. The reports give membership and loan counts but no independent outcome evaluation of reading or education results.
Why it matters: a single national body with statutory funding, a clear eligibility rule and a growing membership shows how accessible-reading provision can be sustained for decades — while the licensing episode shows how fragile the supply of accessible titles is when rightsholder arrangements are unresolved.

Read the full analysis: https://www.kb.dk/en/services/service-people-visual-and-reading-disabilities