The National Library of Israel is the central library of the Hebrew University. The National Library of Israel is the central library of the Hebrew University, which collects all publications and issues in the country. It also collects all publications related to Israel from around the world and selectively from the Middle East; it is responsible for editing the Israel Library's Joint Catalogue of Periodicals.

By the 1870s, the Jerusalem press had In the 1870s, Jerusalem had a telegraph industry, a Hebrew printing industry, a Hebrew newspaper, and modern education and research, but no library. After many Jewish initiatives, the Jewish National and University Library finally came into existence in 1892: the Midrash Avavanel Library in Jerusalem, established by the Sons of the Covenant. The Library was created thanks to the Zionist movement and the famous Polish scholar Dr. Joseph Shazanovich, who, after a visit to Jerusalem in 1890, devoted himself to the establishment of the Jewish National Library and devoted everything to it until his death. He made the Library his home, donating his private collection of books to the Library and collecting a total of 20,000 volumes. This collection was a major part of the Library's holdings for the first 20 years.

At the end of World War I, the library had two functions: the Jewish National Library and the public library for the Jewish population of Jerusalem. When it was reopened in 1925, it was renamed to its present name and new functions were added. In 1933, the library became a national library, affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 15 years before the establishment of the State of Israel. The League of Nations trusteeship government required local publishers to send two copies of their publications to the library, a decree that was later inherited by the Israeli government.

After World War II, the founding of Israel and the Middle East War, a new library was built. Many people donated books both inside and outside Israel, and also received a large number of Jewish books from Germany, which had become unowned property due to the Nazi persecution. The library started interlibrary loan, and became a member of the IFLA. The Library publishes Kiryat Sefer, which covers all publications on Israel and the Jewish people, as well as bibliographies on Israel published in Jordan and abroad, including book reviews, bibliographic studies, and articles on the collection. There is also a bibliography of periodical literature, Index of Articles on Jewish Studies.

Because the vast majority of Jews live outside of Israel, the library does its best to collect general books, periodicals, manuscripts, documents, audio recordings and photographs, as well as cradles, rare books, and manuscripts that reflect and represent the history and culture of the Jewish people. It collects materials from various places and periods in various Jewish languages - Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, etc. For the same purpose, the library also collects works from countries where large numbers of Jews live and work. Emphasis is placed on a bibliography of Jewish studies and a retrospective bibliography of Hebrew books since the invention of printing.