National Library of Scotland
 |
|
The main building on George IV Bridge
|
|
| Country | Scotland |
|---|---|
| Type | National library |
| Established | 1925 |
| Reference to legal mandate | National Library of Scotland Act 1925 & 2012 |
| Location | Edinburgh |
| Coordinates | 55°56′55″N 3°11′31″W / 55.948554°N 3.191899°WCoordinates: 55°56′55″N 3°11′31″W / 55.948554°N 3.191899°W |
| Collection | |
| Size | 14M printed items |
| Legal deposit | Ireland and the United Kingdom |
| Access and use | |
| Access requirements | [1] |
| Other information | |
| Budget | Operating budget 2010/11 £14.882 million GBP |
| Director | Dr. John Scally, National Librarian and Chief Executive |
| Staff | 340 |
| Website | www |
The National Library of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, Scots: Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. Its main base is in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter. There is also a more modern building (1980s) in a residential area on the south side of the town centre, on Causewayside. This was built to accommodate some of the specialist collections (e.g., map library, science library) and to provide large-scale extra storage.
The National Library of Scotland holds 7 million books, 14 million printed items and over 2 million maps. The collection includes copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the letter which Charles Darwin submitted with the manuscript of Origin of Species, the First Folio of Shakespeare and numerous journals and other publications. It has the largest collection of Scottish Gaelic material of any library.
Originally, Scotland's national deposit library was the Advocates Library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates. It was opened in 1689 and gained national library status in the 1710 Copyright Act, giving it the legal right to a copy of every book published in Great Britain. In the following centuries, the library added books and manuscripts to the collections by purchase as well as legal deposit, creating a privately funded national library in all but name.
...
Wikipedia