National Library of Scotland. 23 June 2018.

Saturday. 23 June 2018
National Library of Scotland
https://www.nls.uk/

On this day during the Edinburgh mini-break, I arranged for my own tour of the National Library of Scotland. Interesting fact...when you walk in the door you are actually on the 11th floor of the building! The lower floors are used for storage. The General Reading Room is located on the 13th floor and contains items from the year 1850 on. The Special Collections Reading Room can be found on the 15th floor and includes rare books, manuscripts, maps and music dating before 1850. Items from the Special Collection include: a check in the amount of 38 pounds endorsed by Jane Austen for her writing, a journal of David Livingston's travels in Africa, an original manuscript of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species, and a letter written by Mary Queen of Scots six hours before she died.

The NLS, the largest library in Scotland, is funded by the Scottish government and is open to everyone. Previously, it was difficult to get access to the library--a person had to justify their academic reasons for doing so. Fortunately a change in leadership resulted in breaking down the barriers and a philosophy of access to everyone was adopted.

The NLS began in 1689 as a library for lawyers. As a result of the Copyright Act of 1710 put forth by Parliament, a legal deposit was established which made it a legal requirement for books and periodicals to be sent to the library. The size of the collection became too large for a private library to handle, so in 1925 the collection was bequeathed to the National Library of Scotland. The original building was demolished in 1937, and a new art-deco building erected in its place. The building was interrupted by WWII and finally completed in 1956. In 2009 the Visitor Centre was created, including an information desk, cafe, shop, and exhibition space.

The NLS collection currently holds 27 million items and items are added at the rate of around 6,000 items per week. Items are never discarded and include everything from academic journals, tabloids, children's books and comics, to pornography.

In contrast to the British Library which utilizes an automated delivery system, at the NLS books are fetched the old fashioned way, by hand, and sent up to the Reading Rooms via dumbwaiter. During busy times, book fetchers can walk up to ten miles per day, and are even given a shoe allowance! It can take up to 2 hours for readers to receive a requested item, but readers are encouraged to request items in advance of their visit.

I found their website to be very well developed and encourage people to check out their available digital resources. Link below. Here you will find everything from e-resources, to a digital gallery of items in the collection, to maps, to an extensive catalog of moving images featuring professional and amateur movies featuring Scottish history for the last 100 years.  Our guide told us that by the year 2025 the goal is to have 1/3 of the collection digitized.
https://www.nls.uk/digital-resources

I highly recommend a visit to the National Library of Scotland and will proudly carry my Reader's Card as a memento of my time there.

Our guide Veronica Denholm, pictured on right.

Items on hold for library patrons behind the 13th floor. Reading Room.

Looking down the stairwell 15 floors below.

Level 5 stacks.

Our guide, Elaine Simpson explaining how books are cataloged, stored and accessed.
These shelves house hardcover books and they are arranged by size, saving a great deal of space in the stacks.

Paperback books and pamphlets are held in boxes based on size and the date of acquisition.

Unique shelf mark system used @ NLS. HP refers to Scottish Theater Programs. 3 represents the size of the book. 85 is the year the items were acquired (1985) and the last number is the order in which the item was acquired.