State Library

The State Library was the second national depository of publications in South Africa, founded in the Pretoria.

Originally founded as the Staats-Bibliotheek der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek ("State Library of the South African Republic") owing to a donation of books from the Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde[]. The initial collection consisted of a complete library of Dutch works, mainly Dutch literature and language, to the Transvaal Republic's government. The first consignment of eight chests of books arrived in 1883, including a chest from the Dutch Bible Society. On 21 September 1887 the Transvaal government approved the constitution of the Staats-Bibliotheek, later renamed the Staatsbiblioteek in Afrikaans and the State Library in English.

Till 1999, these two institutions served as joint national institutions, and publishers had to submit copies of all publications to BOTH.

On 1 November 1999 the South African Library in Cape Town and the State Library in Pretoria were finally amalgamated into what now became the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), a collective national custodian of heritage materials and the national depository of published output materials in the country. This was done in terms of two acts: National Library of South Africa Act 1998 (Act No. 92 of 1998) and the Legal Deposit Act, 1997 (Act No. 54 of 1997).