Reading room

The National Archives' reading room is on Laugavegur 162, first floor. Walk in from Laugavegur. The reading room is for those who want to view documents that are kept at the archives.

Reading Room Opening hours:

• Monday 09:30-16:00
• Tuesday 09:30-16:00
• Wednesday 09:30-16:00
• Thursday 09:30-16:00
• Friday Closed

Handling documents

To help us preserve the documents we ask guests of the reading room to follow these rules:

1. Wash your hands before and after handling documents.
2. Food and drink are not allowed in the reading room.
3. The reading room is a quiet area.
4. Only have one box of documents open at a time and put all documents in their box before opening another box.
5. Don't use the flash on your camera or phone when taking pictures of documents.
6. Turn pages carefully and don't wet your fingers to separate the pages.
7. Use paper slips to follow the text in the documents when reading, not a finger or pencil.
8. Don't use any other writing utensils than a pencil when working in proximity to documents.
9. Documents should never be bent, folded or written on.
10. Paper slips are available at the service counter and should be used for marking, never glue anything to documents such as sticky notes.

Further information on handling documents are available here.

Rules for Document Access

Anyone can gain access the archives that are kept in the National Archives through the library's reading room.

There are several, but important, exceptions that restrict public access to the archives, and this is especially the case for documents that contain information on sensitive matters of individuals or matters of public interest. The access to documents that are kept in the National Archives is subject to legal provisions for national archives 77/2014, or legal provisions 140/2012 if the documents are under 30 years old. Together the legislation forms a comprehensive framework for the publics right to information.