George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EW
Kelvin Hall, 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AW
+44 131 623 3700
Amina Shah
Reginald Fairlie
Designed by Reginald Fairlie in 1934-36, with construction commencing in 1937 and the building completed in 1958 (after work had been suspended during the Second World War). It is an imposing national library in a classical-Modern style with stylised bas-relief and sculptures by Hew Lorimer.
1925
2020
The National Library of Scotland is a major European research library and one of the world’s leading centres for the study of Scotland and the Scots. The Library’s collections are of international importance. Key formats include rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, music, moving images and official publications.
The Library holds more than 30 million physical items dating back more than 1,000 years as well as a growing library of digital material. Every week the Library collects around 5,000 new items. Most of these are received under Legal Deposit legislation, which allows the Library to claim a copy of everything published in the UK.
Main public access is via the George IV Bridge Building, and the Access Centre at Kelvin Hall. Annual visitors to the Library sites number around 300,000 per year, while an average of 5 million visits are made to the Library’s websites per year.
A major milestone in the National Library of Scotland’s Centenary programme in 2025, ‘Dear Library’ is a love letter to libraries. It features contributions from library partners, members of the public and VIPs which together celebrate the value of libraries to their communities.
