The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. The website contains thousands of literary texts, secondary literature and additional information, like biographies, portrayals etcetera, and hyperlinks. The DBNL is an initiative by the DBNL foundation that was founded in 1999 by the Society of Dutch Literature (Dutch: Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde). Building of the DNBL was made possible by donations, among others, from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (Dutch: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) and the Nederlandse Taalunie. As of 2008, the editor is René van Stipriaan.[1]The work was done by 8 people in Leiden, 20 students, and 50 people in the Philippines.[1] The latter scan the texts.[1]
The DBNL contains (or will contain in the near future), the complete so called "basic library" (Dutch: "basisbibliotheek") 1,000 deemed "key" texts of the Dutch and Flemish cultural history. [2] The chairperson of the committee that selected the 1,000 key text is Paul Schnabel.[1]. Nevertheless, some classic texts of Dutch literature, like Gerard Reve's 1947 novel The evenings (Dutch: De avonden) and Willem Frederik Hermans' 1966 novel Beyond Sleep (Dutch: Nooit meer slapen) are missing because of copyright reasons.[1].