The acquisition of collections in the National Library began with the foundation of the State Library on Dec 12, 1918. The core of the collection comprised of 2000 books on the subjects of justice and administration, belonging to the former Estonian Province Administration.

Since 1919 the Library started receiving deposit copies of all Estonian publications. Also, the collections were increased by means of international book exchange.

In 1935 the State Library Archive Collection was established, receiving a copy of all printed material published in Estonia. At the same time, the systematic acquisition of Estonian publications and those introducing Estonia and the Baltic States, was started.

During the Soviet occupation, communication with foreign libraries ceased and the collections were dominated by Russian language publications, received as deposit copies. Since 1980s the Library has increased its collections according to its functions as national and parliament library and library of humanities and social sciences.

The collection statistics can be viewed here.

The acquisition of publications is based on the Deposit Copy Act and Rules of Acquisition with supplements on acquisition for Estonica and for the collection of booklets.