National Library of the Democratic Republic of Congo, National library in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The National Library of the Democratic Republic of Congo is a public institution in Kinshasa, created in 1974 within the Ministry of Culture and Arts and made an autonomous body by presidential order in 1989. Its holdings include more than seven thousand historical photographs of the country's political and cultural history, of which only about a quarter have been scanned.

The library was created in 1974 as an office within the Ministry of Culture and Arts. Ordinance No. 89-010 of 18 January 1989 turned it into a public technical and scientific service with legal personality under Congolese law, placed under the Minister of Culture and Arts. In 2009 the Model United Nations of the University of Chicago and UNESCO funded a $14,880 initiative to modernize facilities, train staff and buy new equipment.

The library's holdings centre on the country's political and cultural history, above all a photographic collection of more than seven thousand images. Only about a quarter of these photographs have been scanned, so most are still consulted in their original form. The institution is known by its French initials, BNC.

The reading rooms are open to researchers and the public, where trained librarians provide assistance in locating books, periodicals, and photographs. Visitors should expect longer waits and should ask staff for help navigating the collections to find relevant materials.

The library holds around 7500 historical photographs documenting the country's political and social events, though only about one quarter of this collection has been digitized so far. This means many of these valuable images are still only accessible in their original analog formats.