Kantonsbibliothek Graubünden, Cantonal library in Chur, Switzerland.

Kantonsbibliothek Graubünden is the cantonal study and education library of Graubünden, housed since 1905 in the archive and library building at Karlihof in Chur, renovated in 1992. It holds around 430,000 information carriers, including 1,000 subscribed periodicals, 3,200 sound recordings, 1,400 audiovisual media and 11,500 image documents such as engravings, photographs, maps and posters, growing by about 9,000 items a year. Its old holdings comprise roughly 120,000 titles.

The library grew out of the cantonal school founded in Chur in 1804, whose pupils paid a book levy of half a Louis d'or. From 1865/66 the term "Kantonsbibliothek" appears; the small council approved the conversion into a cantonal library in 1883. In 1919 trivial literature was separated out, and since 1905 the library has occupied the archive and library building at the Karlihof, renovated in 1992.

The Raetica collection gathers everything published in Graubünden or about the canton and its people, including official publications of the canton, communes and their associations. Alongside printed works it holds audiovisual media, posters, graphics and picture reproductions, and it complements the State Archives housed in the same building. The library also keeps around 120,000 older titles, among them a rare group of anticlerical Italian-language authors from the Reformation period.

The library is a publicly accessible academic library open to everyone; borrowing requires a library card, and new users can register online. Documents older than 100 years, irreplaceable media and reference works in the open-access area cannot be borrowed but can be consulted on site. Media held since 1983 appear in the online catalogue of the Graubünden library network; older holdings are listed in the card catalogue, which must be searched in the building itself.

The library holds around 120,000 old titles, including a collection of Italian-language anticlerical authors from the Reformation period. According to the sources, only the Vatican Library has a comparable collection from that era. Since 1951, by law, the library may not collect manuscripts; these are kept in the State Archives in the same building.