National Library of Scotland · The sciences and social sciences were covered by publications like...
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National Library of Scotland Edinburgh www.nls.uk National Library of Scotland Annual Report 1999-2000
Transcript of National Library of Scotland · The sciences and social sciences were covered by publications like...
National Library of ScotlandEdinburghwww.nls.uk
National Library of Scotland
Annual Report1999-2000
© Crown Copyright 2000
ISBN 1 872116 32 9
Photography: Allan Forbes
Design: Jim Cairns Design
Editorial: Jacqueline Cromarty
Kenneth Gibson
Production: Typeset in Monotype
New Caledonia and Frutiger
Printed in Scotland by
J. Thomson Colour Printers
Facing page: Sir Walter Scott books and manuscripts were among
items lent to exhibitions in other institutions during the year.
A detailed supplement to this report may be consulted on theLibrary’s website (www.nls.uk) from October 2000.
National Library of ScotlandGeorge IV BridgeEdinburgh EH1 1EW
Contents
4 Chairman’s foreword
5 Librarian’s introduction
7 An overview
9 The national collections
17 Information and communications technology
21 The Library’s services
23 The library community
29 Exhibitions and events
32 Health and safety
33 Donors and depositors
34 Trustees and senior staff
35 Finance and statistics
MS.
2300
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4
IT I S A G R E A T H O N O U R and challenge for me to follow Lord Crawford, whoretired in October 1999 after nine years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees ofthe National Library of Scotland. During this time, he deftly guided the Librarythrough many difficult steps which have built an exciting platform for the future.
The Library completed a major new building project, refurbished its George IV BridgeBuilding, and made major strides in bringing its technical infrastructure up to modernstandards. Important collections as diverse as the archives of Muriel Spark and of theStevenson engineering company were added to the holdings. Lord Crawford was tirelessin his efforts on behalf of the Library and gave unstintingly of his long experience ofpublic service. It was a matter of great regret to him that unremitting financial pressuresresulted in reduced staff numbers and loss of knowledge and expertise that is hard toreplace. His wise advice and calm leadership will be greatly missed by his fellowTrustees.
I am also much indebted to Lord Emslie, Vice-Chairman since 1975, for so willinglychairing the Board between Lord Crawford’s retirement and my appointment, and Iwould like to take this opportunity to thank him on behalf of the Board for this and allhis previous services to the Library.
The next few years will be enormously challenging. The number of users of traditionalprint and manuscript services is already reaching the levels we were accustomed tobefore the refurbishment of our headquarters building disrupted reader services and ledto the temporary closure of some reading rooms. We also face major challenges indeveloping services on digital materials, new forms of dissemination through the WorldWide Web, and growing demand for life-long learning and cultural enrichmentthroughout Scotland. The Library’s users and its skilled and devoted staff can be assuredthat the Trustees will do everything possible to support them in these endeavours.
PROFESSOR MICHAEL ANDERSON
Chairman’s foreword
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ON 8 O C T O B E R 1 9 9 9 , the Library’s George IV Bridge Building was formally re-opened by Scotland’s First Minister, Donald Dewar, after being closed to the public for eighteen months for refurbishment and essential upgrading of fire safety precautions. The closure was unavoidable, but
meant a great deal of disruption and inconvenience for the Library’s users and staff, and Iam immensely grateful for the patience that everyone displayed during the work. Theend result – a building safe for readers, staff and collections and fit for its purpose in thetwenty-first century – provides a secure foundation for the future development of theLibrary and has been well worth the trouble and expense of this multi-million poundproject.
The completion of this major work has allowed us to concentrate on enhancing theservices we provide to our users, whether they use the Library through its reading roomsor through its remote services. One of the most significant improvements for many yearshas been the introduction of the Voyager computer system, in collaboration with theUniversity of Edinburgh. Voyager gives us the technical capability to integrateinformation about the Library’s collections with digital versions of the collectionsthemselves, and will open a gateway to information which reaches us only in electronicform.
This development is timely. The legal deposit system, which has contributed so much tothe Library over the years, is now likely to be extended so that publications in formatsnot covered by existing legislation can be acquired and preserved. Representatives of thelegal deposit libraries and the publishing industry have recently agreed a code ofvoluntary deposit for some types of electronic publication, such as CD-ROMs, and theGovernment has indicated its intention to introduce the relevant legislation at an earlydate. This development will accelerate the changes necessary to transform the Library asit operates in the digital world. The work we have done in the past year illustrates ourdetermination to achieve that transformation, while retaining the traditional values andservices that have so distinguished the Library in the past.
I. D. MCGOWAN
Librarian’s introduction
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7
An overview
TH I S H A S B E E N a year ofchallenge and achievement.A major landmark in thehistory of the Library was
the formal reopening of ourheadquarters building following thecompletion of our £12.7mrefurbishment programme.
The ceremony was performed on 8 October 1999 by Donald Dewar MSP,First Minister of Scotland, and theoccasion was a reminder of the newpolitical circumstances in which we areentering the twenty-first century, withthe return of a parliament to Scotlandheightening public awareness of thenation’s identity and culture. As one ofScotland’s leading cultural institutions,we welcome the challenges this brings.
With the national collections protectedbetter than ever before from the threatof fire, and with improved facilities forreaders, we can now turn to thechallenge of providing the best possible
services in an age when therevolutionary potential of newtechnology is just beginning to berealised.
We took a major step towards improv-ing services for our users – both localand remote – when we introducedVoyager, a web-based integratedinformation system from EndeavorInformation Systems Inc. Formallylaunched on 30 November 1999 byRhona Brankin MSP, Deputy Ministerfor Culture and Sport, Voyager makesfull use of modern ICT architecture,and will allow us to develop our onlineservices in the twenty-first century.Voyager was acquired jointly by theNational Library and EdinburghUniversity Library working in a cross-sectoral consortium. This is the firstsuch arrangement in Scotland, andprovides a considerable saving of publicmoney whilst ensuring that the expertiseof both libraries is pooled and shared.Another of the year’s highlights was the
‘Developing the
Library’s buildings
to meet the needs of
the future is central
to our work in the
Buildings and
Services Division’
L I N D A
M A C M I L L A N •
Architect Linda MacMillan
and Buildings Officer
Willie Alexander, two
members of the Library’s
Buildings and Services
team, on the roof of the
George IV Bridge Building.
First Minister Donald Dewar is shown
behind the scenes by Lord Crawford
before formally reopening the George IV
Bridge Building.
Rhona Brankin MSP, Deputy Minister for
Culture and Sport, at the launch of the
new Voyager library system.
Phot
o: A
nton
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eeve
Phot
o: M
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Leg
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creation of an educational websiteincorporating teaching materialstargeted at the needs of Scottishschools. Created with support from theMacRobert Trusts, the site wasdesigned initially to complement ourmajor summer exhibition on SirWinston Churchill and proved animmediate success: it featured inComputer Active magazine’s fortnightly‘six of the best’ selection, and shortlyafter its launch was nominated ‘site ofthe day’ by UK Plus search directory.
The tenth anniversary of the ScottishScience Library – a department of theNational Library of Scotland – wasformally marked on 16 February 2000with a public lecture by Nicol StephenMSP, Deputy Minister for Enterpriseand Lifelong Learning. In his talkInformation and the KnowledgeEconomy, Mr Stephen spoke of the newskills required for Scotland to achieve avibrant economy in the twenty-firstcentury, and praised the ScottishScience Library for its contribution.The event was organised with supportfrom the Scottish Higher EducationFunding Council (SHEFC).
Nicol Stephen MSP,
Deputy Minister for
Enterprise and Lifelong
Learning, delivers the
Scottish Science Library
10th anniversary lecture.
Peter Peacock MSP,
Deputy Minister for
Children and Education, is
joined by students from
Balerno High School
following his launch of
the educational website
Churchill: the Evidence.
Phot
o: A
nton
ia R
eeve
Phot
o:A
nton
ia R
eeve
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TH E NAT I O N A L LI B R A RY
O F SC O T L A N D holds theworld’s most comprehensivecollection of books and
manuscripts relating to Scotland andthe Scots.
But it is more than a repository ofthings Scottish. As one of just six legaldeposit libraries in the British Isles –and the only one in Scotland – we canclaim a copy of every new UK or Irishpublication. This privilege goes backalmost 300 years and has helped tomake this the largest library in Scotlandand one of the leading general researchlibraries in the UK.
In the year under review, we acquired237,368 legal deposit items covering animmense variety of subjects. Theyranged from The Scottish Parliament:the First Days, a commemorativecollection marking the new ScottishParliament, to Tajikistan, a HumanRights Watch publication on the threatsto freedom of expression in the formerSoviet republic. The sciences and socialsciences were covered by publicationslike Genomics, Healthcare and PublicPolicy, a collection of conferencepapers, while Professor PriscillaBawcutt’s new two-volume edition ofWilliam Dunbar represented the moreacademic side of the arts. Less serious,but nevertheless offering a distinctperspective on current socialpreoccupations, was Heart-Throb, aMills and Boon medical romance whichtouches on issues like singlemotherhood and the difficulties womenface in getting back into the workplace.
The material that comes to us through
The national collections
legal deposit varies not only in subjectbut also in format, as books,newspapers, journals, maps and musiccontinue to enrich the nationalcollections. The use of this bank ofknowledge is not confined to academicresearchers, but includes access byenquirers from business and thecreative industries, as well as localhistorians, genealogists, and othermembers of the public.
The legal deposit privilege is ofimmense value to us, but it covers onlynew British and Irish publications. Newforeign publications and antiquarianbooks fall outside the scope of legal
Election poster of Hugh
MacDiarmid (Christopher
Murray Grieve), arguably
Scotland’s leading
twentieth-century literary
figure and an ardent
communist and
nationalist.
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deposit, and generally have to bebought, although some reach us as giftsfrom friends and supporters at homeand abroad.
Dr W. R. Aitken was not only the editorand bibliographer of Hugh MacDiarmid(C. M. Grieve), but also a lifelongfriend. On his death, he bequeathed tothe Library his printed and manuscriptcollection of MacDiarmid material,which includes over 100 rare books,ephemera, and photographs, as well aseditorial work on MacDiarmid’sComplete Poems (1978).
An interesting purchase – obtainedfrom a German dealer – was the onlycomplete copy of the second earliestedition known of The Merry Muses, theinfamous series of bawdy songscollected by Robert Burns. It wasproduced in Dublin around 1804. Wealso purchased a previously unknownissue of the first edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica. It usesunbound sheets from the first edition,published in Edinburgh in 1771, buthas new prefatory material and bears aLondon 1773 imprint. A trade cataloguefrom the Edinburgh engineering firmBertrams provides a fascinating insightinto the paper-making industry at thestart of the twentieth century. Producedin 1921 to mark the company’scentenary, the Illustrated Catalogue ofPaper-Making Machinery containsparticularly splendid illustrations ofpaper- and pulp-making machines.
The Library has strong holdings ofbooks for the blind, and a welcomeaddition came with the purchase of ourearliest book for the blind to useembossed printing. Essaies surl’éducation des aveugles, published inParis in 1786, used a system conceivedby Valentin Haüy that is a precursor ofpresent-day Braille.
The embossed lettering of
Essaies sur l’éducation des
aveugles (1786), now part
of the Library’s extensive
collection of books
for the blind.
Trade catalogues like this
1921 Bertram’s example
give detailed information
about Scotland’s industrial
history.
The only known complete
copy of the rare 1804
edition of Burns’s The
Merry Muses.
RB.m
.442
S8.2
00.0
102
RB.s
.204
6
11
Two other purchases illustrate the workof Scots abroad. A Paris 1559 edition ofDominique Jacquinot’s L’Usage del’astrolabe was bought because itcontains the rare second edition of theAmplification de l’usage de l’astrolabeby the influential Scots astronomerJames Bassentin, who lived and workedin France. Mary Queen of Scots had‘The Astrologie off Bassentyne’ amongher books in 1569. Emblemata amatoriaGeorgii Camerii, published in Venice in1627, is the first emblem book by aScottish author and was the work ofGeorge Chalmers, a Catholic exile fromScotland.
We also continued to enhance our stockof standard reference works withmodern purchases, including theBibliography of American Literature onCD-ROM, a comprehensive listing ofthe literary works of nearly 300significant American writers from theRevolution to 1930.
We added several artists’ books of highquality to the Library’s growingcollection of works in this genre.Worthy of particular mention are TheGreen Woman, the second collaborationbetween artist Caroline Saltzwedel anda Scottish poet, in this case KathleenJamie, and Low Land, a hand-madevolume of poems and prints by motherand daughter Dorcas and EleanorSymms celebrating the landscapes ofthe Scottish Borders.
An interesting addition to the Library’sholdings of material on the early historyof America was Remembering Slavery, awork including audio-tapes ofinterviews with former slaves. Therecordings were originally made in theearly 1930s by interviewers from the USFederal Writers’ Project, and laterremastered by the SmithsonianInstitution.
A welcome addition to
our collection of artists’
books. The Green Woman
is the product of
collaboration between
artist Caroline Saltzwedel
and poet Kathleen Jamie.
New additions to the
Library’s extensive North
American collections.
The first emblem book by
a Scottish author, George
Chalmers’s Emblemata
amatoria, published in
Venice in 1627.
FB.m
.600
RB.s
.204
5
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‘Our huge collections of
newspapers, magazines, and
other serials are a rich
source of information for
readers’
J O S E A R A N G O •
Jose Arango (right) and James Ripley of
the Serials Unit. The Library takes some
25,000 current newspapers and journals,
most of them obtained through our
valuable legal deposit privilege.
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A collection of letters from Lord Kelvinto his instrument-makers gives aninsight into Scotland’s contribution tothe development of modern science.Kelvin was Professor of NaturalPhilosophy at Glasgow University from1846 to 1889, and is associated withmany major advances in physics.
As always, the world of literature waswell represented. We acquired papersof the poet and critic Tom Leonard andthe writer and broadcaster MauriceLindsay, and with the assistance of theFriends of the National Libraries webought the papers of poet and criticTom Scott, who died in 1995.
Manuscript acquisitionsThe Library made important additionsto its rich manuscript collections.
With the help of the Friends of theNational Libraries, we were able to buya set of papers assembled by Sir JohnCope in defence of his conduct at thebattle of Prestonpans, immortalised inthe song ‘Hey Johnnie Cope…’. The papers of Alexander L. Bruce, son-in-law of explorer DavidLivingstone, made an interestingdeposit. Bruce was a leading figure invarious imperial and humanitarianmovements in the 1890s, including theAfrican Lakes Company.
Sir John Cope’s papers
defending his actions at
the battle of Prestonpans,
where his army was
routed by the Jacobites.
Papers of Alexander
Bruce, son-in-law of the
explorer David
Livingstone.
Letters of the nineteenth-
century physicist and
entrepreneur Lord Kelvin. Acc
.117
93
Acc
.117
71
Acc
.117
77
We also bought a volume of forty-threeletters by John Buchan (Lord Tweeds-muir), perhaps best known as the authorof The Thirty-Nine Steps, but also astatesman of considerable note. Theletters relate to his period as GovernorGeneral of Canada, and consist ofcommunications with George V, Edward VIII, and George VI.
Undoubtedly the most visuallyoutstanding manuscript acquisition ofthe year was the collection ofunpublished travel diaries and bookmanuscripts bequeathed to the Libraryby Doris Ann Goodchild, who diedrecently at the age of 93. MissGoodchild had a passion for calligraphyand illustration, and wrote, designed,and illustrated her own books, many ofthem guidebooks and travel books. Herdiaries are even more exuberant thanher published books and bring a wealthof colour to our collections. A close rivalin visual attraction is a new addition toour collection of the work of the
sixteenth-century calligrapher EstherInglis, purchased with support from theReid Fund and the National ArtCollections Fund.
Modern politics were represented bypapers deposited by the ScottishLiberal Democrats.
Part of the collection of manuscripts bequeathed by Doris Ann Goodchild.
Political papers deposited by the Scottish
Liberal Democrats.
Imag
e:St
even
Gou
gh
Acc
.118
01A
cc.1
1765
14
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Changes in legal depositThe legal deposit system is a cost-effective way of building nationalreference collections, but itsshortcomings and deficiencies are nowwidely acknowledged. Following thepublication of the Kenny Report in1998, the Government accepted theneed for legislation to create a nationalarchive of non-print publications, butproposed reliance on voluntarymeasures in the interim. A small groupof UK librarians and publishers has nowdrawn up a code of practice for thevoluntary deposit of new media, and the Government has accepted itsrecommendations.
The new voluntary arrangement cameinto operation in January 2000, andmarks the first phase in the extension oflegal deposit to electronic and othernon-print publications. At present, only‘tangible’ non-print material (includingCD-ROMs and DVDs) is covered, butthe Library, together with other legal
deposit libraries, has set up a group toexplore the issues surrounding thefuture handling of publications inpurely electronic form. Work has alsobegun to find ways of establishing thesecure network required to giveappropriate access to the materialsdeposited under the voluntaryagreement.
The Library continued to play an activerole in the Standing Committee onLegal Deposit (SCOLD), which co-ordinates the legal deposit policies ofthe six UK and Irish deposit libraries.Particular attention is being given to thescope for co-ordinating the acquisitionof publications produced bygovernment and other official bodies.The Library also joined its fellowdeposit libraries in taking a stand at theLondon Book Fair (19-21 March 1999)in order to promote the value of thelegal deposit privilege in maintainingthe national archive of publishedmaterials.
The Library participates in theCopyright Libraries Shared CataloguingProgramme (CLSCP), which shares theresponsibility for providing records forthe current publishing output of the UKand Ireland. The CLSCP provides realbenefits for all the participatinglibraries, and we were pleased to host ameeting of the Steering Committee inNovember 1999. A major focus of theCLSCP in the course of the year was itspossible expansion to cover journals andother periodicals.
Map acquisitions Among the year’s purchases, two inparticular stand out. The first was ofmaps of three different part of Scotlandpublished by Valk and Schenk inAmsterdam around 1690. These mapsfill an important gap in the history ofthe mapping of Scotland, and theirorigins can be traced back, throughBlaeu and others, to the surveys carriedout by Timothy Pont a century before.The second notable purchase was ANew Map of Ireland… for the use ofTravellers (1793), our first acquisition ofthe work of Scots surveyor LieutenantAlexander Taylor who worked in Irelandfrom 1777. We also acquired – thistime by legal deposit – the ‘MillenniumEdition’ of The Times ComprehensiveAtlas of the World, to which we hadourselves contributed two illustrations.
Below: Scots surveyor Alexander Taylor’s
map of Ireland (1793).
Above right: The Steering Committee of the Copyright
Libraries Shared Cataloguing Programme on its visit to
Edinburgh.
Phot
o: S
teve
McA
voy
EMI.b
16
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Information andcommunicationstechnology
INF O R M A T I O N A N D
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S T E C H -N O L O G Y (ICT) has the potentialto enhance and expand our
services in ways not dreamed of just afew years ago. We are committed tomaking maximum use of ICT, and theyear saw significant progress in ourexploitation of its potential, but theneed to maintain existing services at thesame time inevitably constrains ourambitions.
The outstanding achievement of theyear was the successful introduction ofVoyager, a highly sophisticated web-based integrated information systemfrom Endeavor Information SystemsInc. of Illinois.
In the first cross-sectoral consortium ofits kind in Scotland, the Library teamedup with Edinburgh University Libraryto acquire Voyager. This enables bothlibraries to provide a wide range ofservices to their combined users and toshare the costs of hardware, software,maintenance and development.
The system supports co-operationbetween libraries, and the NationalLibrary of Scotland/EdinburghUniversity Library consortium is alreadyhosting other libraries, including theSignet Library and the Scottish Collegeof Agriculture. Plans are in hand to hostthe data of the Royal Observatory,Edinburgh, and Edinburgh College ofArt.
‘The successful introduction of
the new Voyager integrated
information system was one of
the year’s major achievements’
I A I N A N D E R S O N •
Iain Anderson, the Library’s Computer
Services Manager (left), with Tony Weir,
UNIX Systems Manager at Edinburgh
University Computing Services. The
Library and Edinburgh University operate
the Voyager system on a highly efficient
consortial basis.
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Improving accessIt is increasingly important that ourcatalogues should be available forconsultation over the Internet. Theretroconversion of our catalogues toelectronic form has been given highpriority, and by the end of the year 2000only a relatively small number ofrecords covering pre-1801 publicationswill remain to be processed. We arealready looking at ways of assistingother Scottish libraries to improveaccess to their collections by makingfreely available the electronic recordswe create as part of our ownprogramme. We have also beenformalising cataloguing policies forelectronic publications, and will makethe results of our work available to thewider library community.
We continued to develop Bibliographyof Scotland, the world’s most completelisting of modern publications onScotland and the Scots. This product isavailable both on CD-ROM andthrough the Library’s website, and isunique in listing not only relevant booksand periodicals, wherever published, butalso major articles and book chapters.
Since 1994, the Bibliography of ScottishLiterature in Translation project(BOSLIT) has been compiling an onlinedatabase of translations of Scottishwriting, and has so far recorded over21,000 translations into more than 100languages. Thanks to generous supportfrom the Carnegie Trust for theUniversities of Scotland, coverage of thetwentieth century has been completed,and now further funding, from the Artsand Humanities Research Board, willallow work on pre-1901 material to be continued for a further year. On 19 November 1999, to mark theproject’s fifth anniversary, BOSLIT held a conference on the problemsand possibilities of translating modern
Scottish literature. Contributorsincluded award-winning novelist IanRankin and his Danish translator KlavsBrøndum; Céline Schwaller, translator
of James Kelman’s The Bus-ConductorHines and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark;Ursula Kimpel, German translator ofLiz Lochhead; and Tina Mahkota, whois working on a translation intoSlovenian of Janice Galloway’s The Trickis to Keep Breathing.
The Bibliography of the ScottishLanguage (BOSLAN) records materialwritten in Scots, or relating to it. Atpresent the database records onlycurrent material acquired by theLibrary, but in conjunction with theScottish Language Resource Associationwe now hope to appoint a researcher toconduct a survey of the work requiredto add older material.
The Union Catalogue of Art Books inLibraries in Scotland (UCABLIS)covers books on subjects ranging fromthe decorative and fine arts toarchitecture, photography, and design.To maximise the efficiency of thisproduct, we have been discussing theconvergence of cataloguing standardswith libraries that contribute details oftheir collections, and a UCABLISrepresentative has joined the group setup by the Co-operative AcademicInformation Retrieval Network forScotland (CAIRNS) to look atcataloguing standards in the context ofcross-searching different institutions’catalogues.
Remote accessThe Library’s most important link withthe wider world is its website,www.nls.uk. Through it, researchersworldwide can find out about ourservices and collections, and can view asmall range of items from our holdings.Use of the website grew steadily, withthe monthly number of user sessionsincreasing to 30,000 in the course of theyear. We already have plans to enhanceand enlarge the site, and will shortlyintroduce information aimedspecifically at library professionals.
A website designed to coincide with our
major summer exhibition on WinstonChurchill, and launched by DeputyMinister for Children and EducationPeter Peacock MSP on 9 June, madeinnovative use of web technology toassist the education community. Thesite (www.churchill.nls.ac.uk) wascreated jointly by the Library and theChurchill Archives Centre, Cambridge,with support from the MacRobertTrusts, and combines a virtualexhibition of historical documentsillustrating the Churchill story with aspecial section of teaching resourcesspecifically designed for use in theScottish classroom. These includematerials aimed at pupils of all ages,including those following the newHigher Still syllabus. The site remained‘live’ after the exhibition closed, and itcontinues to attract a growing numberof visitors from both Scotland andabroad.
DigitisationThe library of the future will be ahybrid library which combinesconventional print resources with digitalmaterials that can be consulted both inthe library and remotely. During theyear, we continued with the work ofpreparing the Library for its eventualtransformation into such a hybridlibrary.
The temporary appointment of aDigitisation Research Officer allowedus to assess our requirements for thecapture, storage, and retrieval of digitalimages.
At the same time, in partnership withthe National Archives of Scotland andthe Scottish Cultural Resources AccessNetwork (SCRAN), we sought supportfrom the New Opportunities Fund for acollaborative project for the digitisationof learning materials in libraries andarchives throughout Scotland. If ourapplication is successful, the project willin effect provide content for thegovernment’s Public Library Network(PLN) initiative.
19
Our internal digitisation projectsincluded digitising one of our greatmediaeval treasures, the MurthlyHours, in preparation for mounting adigital ‘facsimile’ on our website andproducing a CD-ROM version forinclusion with a book on the MurthlyHours that we are publishing inassociation with the British Library.The first detailed maps of Scotland,made in the late sixteenth century byTimothy Pont, were digitised to ahigher resolution than previously. Thecompressed digital images will bemounted on a mini-website, allowingremote users to view the maps ingreater detail than ever before.
At the time of the Scottish Parliamentelection of 6 May 1999 we marked the
occasion by taking a ‘snapshot’ of allfourteen participating parties’ websites.In years to come, they will offer aunique perspective on a pivotal momentin the nation’s history.
There is a trend for institutions tocollaborate in cross-sectoral exercisesaimed at creating digital resources. TheLibrary is a partner is the £250,000‘Charting the Nation’ project fundedthrough the Research Support LibrariesProgramme (RSLP), an initiative of theUK’s higher education funding councils,with additional support from theScottish Cultural Resources AccessNetwork (SCRAN). ‘Charting theNation’ will digitise maps of Scotlandfor the period 1590 to 1740, togetherwith related archival material.
Preparatory work for the project wascarried out over several months, anddigitisation will begin in the comingyear.
Under a £46k agreement with Bell &Howell, we have begun to microfilm2,350 pre-1701 printed items from ourcollections. Thanks to this collaboration,some of our most prized Scottishholdings – most of them unique orextremely rare – will be made availableto a wider public not only through Bell& Howell’s microfilm series, but alsothrough a digital version created fromthe microfilm. The Library will retainmicrofilm and digital copies of theitems processed, allowing us to protectthe rare originals from unnecessaryhandling in the future.
Just three of the fourteen
political websites ‘captured’ at
the election of the new Scottish
Parliament.
The Murthly Hours, which is
being made available as a digital
facsimile to accompany the
launch of a new study of the
manuscript.
Imag
e:Je
rem
y Fo
rbes
MS.
2100
0
18
21
The Library’s services
TH E M A I N R E A D I N G
R O O M S in our headquartersbuilding on George IVBridge reopened at the end
of March 1999.
The refurbished public areas arehelping staff to provide an improvedservice in a high quality environmentwhich caters for the technical needs oftoday’s readers. We have doubledprovision for readers to use their ownlaptop computers, and the number ofaccess points to our online catalogueshas increased by a third.
Our new Voyager library computersystem went live on 21 September. Thenew web-based catalogue is easier touse than its predecessor and offersmore sophisticated search strategies,and the terminals also give readersaccess to general web resources.
We have also made significant changesin staffing arrangements. FromSeptember 1999, staff in charge of themain public service areas moved to ashift system, and from April 2000 weare introducing a full shift system for allReference Services staff in the GeorgeIV Bridge Building. The Library is opento the public for 58 hours each week,and the new arrangements will ensure auniformly high level of servicesthroughout those hours.
In an important Library-wide initiative,we set up a Special Needs ActionGroup (SNAG) to identify therequirements of disabled users and takeaction to ensure those needs are met.The group consulted widely beforeacquiring a range of equipment to helpwith mobility and visual problems.
‘The Library offers a rich
and varied window on the
world, past and present’
J E N N I F E R S T U B B S •
Jennifer Stubbs of the Map Library with
reader Ian Davie of DLM Partnership,
mining consultants and surveyors. The
Map Library serves a wide public, from
amateur family historians to the rising
number of professionals who need
reliable cartographic information.
22
The Map LibraryThe Map Library holds more than 1.6million maps covering almost every partof the world, and is the largest UKlibrary of its kind north of Cambridge.It issues more than 40,000 maps a yearto a wide range of users, from privateindividuals researching local or familyhistory to members of the academic andbusiness communities.
The Scottish Science LibraryThe Scottish Science Library celebratedten years of service to the scientific andbusiness community with a publiclecture entitled Information and theKnowledge Economy, delivered on 16 February by Nicol Stephen MSP,Deputy Minister for Enterprise andLifelong Learning.
The Library, and its Scottish BusinessInformation Service wing (SCOTBIS),continued to fulfil a national roleproviding scientific and businessinformation through its reading roomand its services for remote users.Its free enquiry services continued tooperate in tandem with its fee-baseddesk research and current awarenessservices. Document delivery remained ahigh priority, with the photocopying,inter-library loan, and databasedownloading and print-out servicesmuch in demand.
The Science Library was the firstdepartment of the National Library tooffer its users full access to the web,and it has now developed seminars tohelp users get the maximum benefitfrom web sources. An Internetworkshop was organised as part of theEdinburgh Festival of the Environmentin September 1999, and other seminarswere run throughout the year, includingthree in March 2000 as part of NationalScience Week. Staff have compiledprinted guides to web-based sources fora number of topical subjects, includinggenetically modified organisms(GMOs).
In January 2000, the Science Librarylaunched SSL Inform, targeted atscientific and business users. Thenewsletter was well received and itsguide to web sources was singled outfor particular praise.
The introduction of Voyager hasallowed us to begin work in earnest oncomputerising our Map Librarycatalogues. Following the appointmentof a dedicated cataloguer, all newlyacquired maps are now recorded in theautomated catalogue.
We have also nearly completed work onthe National Grid Database, whichrecords the Library’s holdings of large-scale Ordnance Survey paper maps ofScotland from the 1940s to the 1990s.
In previous years, the Library was oneof just two UK sites chosen to test theprovision of large-scale OrdnanceSurvey digital mapping to the public. Inthe year under review, we became thefirst UK library to offer full access todigital maps of the country at largescale (1:1,250 to 1:10,000) following anagreement between the legal depositlibraries and the Ordnance Survey onthe public provision and futurearchiving of this digital material.
Tam Burke of the Map Library views one
of the Ordnance Survey digital maps now
available to readers.
23
LI B R A R I E S are co-operative bynature, but the explosive advance
of technology in recent years has made it possible to
share resources and expertise on a scalepreviously unimaginable, to the benefitof readers as well as institutions. AsScotland’s largest library, the NationalLibrary of Scotland plays an active rolein the national and international librarycommunity.
Dr Alan Marchbank, our Director ofPublic Services, and Fred Guy, Directorof Information and CommunicationsTechnology, both served on theorganising committee for Informationfor Scotland VI. Held on 11 November1999, this was the sixth in a series ofannual conferences exploring issues ofconcern to librarians and informationproviders throughout Scotland.
Co-ordinating collecting policiesThe investigation of the collectingpolicies of local libraries throughoutScotland, set up by the Library and theScottish Library and InformationCouncil (SLIC), has now beencompleted. Its findings will bepublished by SLIC in A NationalStrategy for Scottish Materials, and willinform the debate on the best way ofachieving the maximum coverage ofScottish material right across Scotland.The Library and SLIC have acceptedthe findings of the report and areconsidering the best way forward. Theissue will be explored in a nationalsetting at a seminar planned for June 2000.
Our Rare Books Division has beenengaged in discussions with the British
The library community
Library on co-ordinating the purchaseof early printed books. Staff alsoprovided advice to two externalcataloguing projects. The first is aproject to catalogue the historiccollections of Bowhill House nearSelkirk, using volunteers from theNational Association of Decorative andFine Arts Society (NADFAS), and thesecond is a Heritage Lottery-fundedproject to catalogue InnerpeffrayLibrary, Perthshire, which dates from1680 and is the oldest free lendinglibrary in the country.
SCURL projectsThe Scottish Confederation ofUniversity and Research Libraries(SCURL), which is constituted as a sub-committee of our Board of Trustees,provides a discussion forum for Scottishuniversity and research libraries andpromotes co-operation on projectswhich will improve services to users.With the number and range of issueswhich it tackles continuing to increase,SCURL sought funding for a projectofficer to co-ordinate projects and toraise funds for its work.
SCURL made a successful applicationto the Funding Councils’ ResearchSupport Libraries Programme (RSLP)for its Scottish Collections NetworkExtension project (SCONE). SCONEwill create a Scotland-wide informationresource which brings togetherSCURL’s existing initiatives and allowsfurther progress towards a nationalelectronic library. One of the first tasksbeing tackled by the new team is thedevelopment of the ResearchCollections Online database. Theexisting collecting responsibilities of
participating libraries are being updatedin a programme co-ordinated by theNational Library; the research-levelcollections of new universities and otherhigher education institutions are beingadded to the database; and SCONE isstudying the feasibility of includinginformation on holdings in publiclibraries.
One of SCURL’s key projects is the Co-operative Academic InformationRetrieval Network for Scotland(CAIRNS). CAIRNS is aimed atallowing catalogues from severallibraries to be consulted online as ifthey were a single catalogue, and iscurrently examining the minimumcataloguing standards for reliable cross-searching.
If a distributed national researchcollection is to operate well, librariesmust co-ordinate their policies onretaining and preserving material, andthis is the issue under consideration bySCURL’s Shared Preservation inScotland programme (SPIS), funded bythe Scottish Higher Education FundingCouncil (SHEFC) with contributionsfrom non SHEFC-funded members. Areport on the obligations of libraries inco-operative programmes was producedby Dr Janet Gertz of ColumbiaUniversity, New York, and its findingswere accepted by Scottish library andpreservation specialists. Thanks tofunding from the Library andInformation Council (now theMuseums, Libraries and ArchivesCommission), a project worker wasappointed to consider how to apply theGertz report’s findings to a sharedsystem of collecting in Scotland.
‘Feedback from users of our foreign
collections is extremely valuable’
C H R I S T A Y L O R •
24
25
Another important SCURL initiative isthe Scottish Datasets Project, which islooking at ways of making importantdatasets relating to Scotland availableonline. The Carnegie Trust for theUniversities of Scotland awarded itsmaximum grant of £30,000 so thatoptical character recognition (OCR) canbe applied to existing digitised imagesof the first and second editions of TheStatistical Account of Scotland, makingthe text of these enormously valuablereference works fully searchable. Workon making the digitised imagesthemselves available online is beingfunded by a grant of £25,000 from theContent Working Group (CWG) of theCommittee on Electronic Information(CEI). On 18 November 1999 theLibrary joined other interested parties –Edinburgh Data Information Access(EDINA), the National Archives ofScotland, the Royal Society ofEdinburgh, and the Scottish HigherEducation Funding Council – inorganising a symposium on digitisationissues, ‘Making Information Available inDigital Format’.
Chris Taylor of Collection Development
(right) with Dr Carlo Caruso, lecturer in
Italian at the University of St Andrews.
Collection Development is responsible for
building and promoting the Library’s
collection of overseas books.
International developmentsDr Ann Matheson, our Director ofGeneral Collections, continued asGeneral Secretary of the Ligue desbibliothèques européennes derecherche (LIBER), with Chris Fleet ofour Map Library acting as secretary forits Groupe des Cartothécaires. Librariesfrom central and eastern Europe arebeing helped to join LIBER withfunding secured from OCLC, one ofthe largest suppliers of bibliographicalservices in the world. This year, LIBERand the OCLC Institute have been co-operating on a project to identify themost important strategic issues forlibraries over the next five years –mirroring a similar exercise alreadycarried out in the USA.
The Library is a member of aconsortium helping the Russian StateLibrary in Moscow to select and installan information system. The £700,000
project is funded by the EU’s TechnicalAssistance to the Commonwealth ofIndependent States programme(TACIS), and our partners in theventure include the British Council andJouve SA of France. Despite theproblems posed by the sheer size of theproject (the Russian Library, with over42 million books, is Europe’s largest), itmade good progress. Library staff wereclosely involved in drawing up thesoftware specification and in evaluatingtenders. Our Director of ICT, FredGuy, and Computer Services Manager,Iain Anderson, will travel to Moscow toassist in the implementation of theselected system.
As a consequence of the TACIS project,seven senior members of staff from theRussian State Library, together with theDirector of the Russian NationalLibrary, St Petersburg, paid a two-dayfact-finding visit to the National Libraryof Scotland on 27 and 28 October.A further Russian link was forged whenour Librarian, Ian McGowan, acceptedan invitation to join the InternationalAdvisory Board for the State Library ofForeign Literature in Moscow.
Mr McGowan was also appointed chairof the organising committee for IFLA’sannual conference in 2002. IFLA, theInternational Federation of Library
The Librarian, Ian McGowan (right), and
Director of ICT, Fred Guy (left), welcome
visitors from the Russian State Library
and the Russian National Library.
Phot
o: M
oira
Leg
gat
26
PreservationThe Library’s Preservation Division hasa prominent role in the national andinternational scene.
As part of our involvement in theBritish Library Research andInnovation Centre’s project to develop amethodology for surveying thepreservation needs of libraries and
archives, the Library acted as a test-bedfor the proposed methodology. Withcontinued funding from the BritishLibrary, and managed by the NationalPreservation Office, this pilot projectsurveyed some 400 items from ourcollections in the period January toApril 1999. We were also representedon the National Preservation Office’sMicrofilm Working Group, whichworked on a revision of the Mellonmicrofilming manual that setsinternational standards for microfilmingprojects.
The high profile of our PreservationDivision attracts specialists from homeand abroad, and among those who
visited the Division during the yearwere the Director of Conservation atthe National Library of Portugal, theNational Library of Wales’s PreservationDevelopment Officer, a representativeof the Okinawa Prefectural Archives,the Head of Manuscripts and the Headof Preservation from the NationalLibrary of Prague, a BusinessDevelopment Analyst from the NationalLibrary of New Zealand, and arepresentative of the Bodleian Library,Oxford. The Division also offered aninternship to a student from theEuropean School of Book Conservationand Restoration in Spoleto, Italy.
The Preservation Division was pleasedto make available its expertise to others.In particular, our knowledge of thedigital manipulation of images allowedus to help both the Special CollectionsDepartment at Glasgow University anda small Borders church. In the case ofthe University, digital enhancementtechniques were applied to clarify apalimpsest in a fourteenth-centurymanuscript of John Gower’s VoxClamantis, while similar techniquesmade it possible to read again a fadedFirst World War roll of honour inTeviothead Church. We also gave adviceto Aberdeen University Library on theestablishment of a binding preparationsystem linked to computerised letteringequipment.
Within the Library itself, a majoractivity was the treatment of over 4,000photographs of the First World War,which form part of the collection ofEarl Haig, British Commander-in-Chiefon the Western Front.
The Scottish Newspapers MicrofilmingUnit (SNMU) is housed in the Libraryand managed jointly by us and theScottish Library and InformationCouncil (SLIC). In recent years, theUnit has extended its remit beyondmicrofilming newspapers to strictarchival standards. As well asdiversifying into the microfilming of
Business and scienceIn March 2000, the Scottish ScienceLibrary convened a meeting of scienceinformation providers from throughoutScotland to explore matters of commonconcern. Staff also held discussions withthe Business Shop Network to examinethe potential for collaboration on theprovision of business information inScotland.
We encouraged outside bodies to tourthe Science Library, and our visitorsincluded the Industrial and CommercialLibrarians Group, business and sciencesubject specialists from university andpublic libraries, and staff from businessshops, chambers of commerce, and arange of public bodies. Staff from theLibrary also visited organisationsthroughout Scotland to cement linksand promote our science and businessservices.
Associations and Institutions, wasfounded in Edinburgh in 1927 and willbe returning to Scotland for its 75thanniversary.
In September, a party of 40 Hungarianlibrarians from the National SzéchényiLibrary, Budapest, paid us an intensive3-day visit during which they toureddepartments and received presentationson various aspects of our services. Twomembers of our own staff went on fact-finding visits overseas. Dr KevinHalliwell, who has responsibility for ourNorth American collections, visitedCanada in October, while Chris Taylor,curator of French and Italiancollections, travelled to Italy in March.
Visitors from the National Széchényi Library, Budapest.
National Library of Scotland Librarian Ian McGowan
(centre) with William Walker of New York Public Library
and James Michalko, President of the Research Libraries
Group (left), at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the RLG in
the Getty Center, Los Angeles.
Mark Ramsden
(right), whose
binding of From
Rebel to Hero won
the 1999 National
Library of Scotland
Elizabeth Soutar
Craft Bookbinding
Competition.
With him is Robert
Clyde, author of
the book.
Phot
o: M
ark
Jack
son
Phot
o: H
ilary
Han
non
27
Inter-Library ServicesOur Inter-Library Services Division is atthe heart of the inter-library loan anddocument delivery service in Scotland.It helps to identify and locate booksanywhere in Scotland, and, whereappropriate, can also supply materialfrom its own collections. Moregenerally, it keeps libraries informed ofdevelopments in document supply andacts as a central co-ordinator for co-operative activities involving Scottishlibraries of all kinds.
Digital technology is set to play anincreasingly important role in documentsupply. We have been continuing toevaluate the use of Ariel software which
allows copies of publications to besupplied electronically – potentially aquick and easy way of supplyingmaterial, particularly to overseaslibraries. We hope to launch a fullelectronic delivery service using Ariel inthe coming year.
The Scottish Union Catalogue (SUC) iscentral to the Division’s work, since itholds details of books held by librariesthroughout Scotland. The automatedpart of the SUC is included in Unity, aUK-wide database which wassignificantly disrupted in 1998-99 afterthe collapse of the software companyresponsible for it. Following theacquisition of the Unity system by TalisInformation Ltd (formerly BLCMP),Unity returned to full operation. Undera development plan agreed by Talis,Inter-Library Services, and the sevenother UK regional library systemsinvolved with Unity, the service willbecome an Internet-based subscriptionsystem early in 2001.
Throughout the year, Inter-LibraryServices organised meetings andseminars to facilitate the exchange ofinformation on document supply.Regional Interlending Meetings wereheld in Perth in June 1999 and inPaisley in March 2000, attractingdelegates from twenty-five libraries ofall types. In September 1999 weteamed up with the Forum forInterlending to hold a Scottish Inter-Library Lending event at which theBritish Library Document SupplyCentre was also represented. And inMarch 2000 we hosted an open meetingfor interlending professionals to explorethe implications of major changes in theBritish Library Document SupplyCentre’s charging levels andprocedures. A very positive result of thismeeting has been the establishment –in conjunction with the Scottish Libraryand Information Council (SLIC) – of anInterlending Focus Group to review theScottish dimension of interlending inthe light of these changes.
general archive materials for clientsthroughout the UK, it has increasinglyfocused on digitisation. In the yearunder review staff worked on a five-yearbusiness plan and explored withLothian and Edinburgh EnterpriseLimited (LEEL) possible collaborationon training and the development of e-commerce. We also explored thefeasibility of providing microfilm toPreservation Resources, thepreservation arm of bibliographicalservices giant OCLC.
The Library is closely involved inNEWSPLAN, a co-operativeprogramme for the preservation of localnewspapers by microfilming them toarchival standard. Under thechairmanship of Dr Ann Matheson, ourDirector of General Collections, theLibrary and Information Co-operationCouncil’s NEWSPLAN Panel last yearsecured a £5 million award from theHeritage Lottery Fund and a further£2.5 million from the newspaperindustry, suppliers, and the library
sector. With some 1,100 deterioratingnewspaper titles in urgent need ofsaving, Scotland is one of tenNEWSPLAN regions that will benefitfrom the project, and we shall shortlybe organising a seminar to explain toScottish librarians the significance ofthe Lottery award.
First World War hospital
train. One of the 4,000
war photographs
conserved by our
Preservation Division.Imag
e:Je
rem
y Fo
rbes
Acc
.315
5/Ph
otog
raph
L48
5
‘Helping the
general
public
understand
our history
and culture is
an enjoyable
challenge’
J A C Q U E L I N E
C R O M A R T Y •
Deputy Head of Public
Programmes Jacqueline
Cromarty at work on the
Library’s Churchill
exhibition with Allen
Packwood of the
Churchill Archives Centre,
Cambridge. Exhibitions,
publications, and web-
based products act as
bridges between the
Library and the public
at large.
28
Exhibitions and events
TH E C U L T U R A L andprofessional responsibilitiesof the National Library ofScotland extend far beyond
its readers, and far beyond Edinburgh,and one of the ways in which we fulfilthem is through exhibitions and events.
The highlight of the year was our majorsummer exhibition, Churchill: theEvidence, launched by Churchill’sdaughter, Lady Soames, on Saturday 5 June. Created jointly by the Libraryand the Churchill Archives Centre,Cambridge, it proved to be one of ourmost successful exhibitions ever.
Equally successful were the Churchillprojects and events that we organisedaround the main exhibition. A websitecombining a ‘virtual exhibition’ onChurchill and teaching materialsspecifically targeted at Scottish schoolswas launched by Peter Peacock MSP,Deputy Minister for Children andEducation, on 9 June, and has provedto be of value to professional andprivate researchers all around theworld. It was created with support fromthe MacRobert Trusts.
A travelling exhibition created withsupport from the Gannochy Trust setoff from Edinburgh on the same day,and by the end of the year had visitedsix venues, ranging from the A. K. BellLibrary at Perth to the Fleet Air ArmMuseum in Somerset. The package wascompleted by a series of five lectures,organised partly in association with theEdinburgh International Book Festival,with Lady Soames and Celia Sandys,Churchill’s granddaughter, among thosetaking part.
Captured Shadows, our exhibitionfeaturing Edinburgh-born JohnThomson, one of the most importantphotographers of the nineteenthcentury, completed an extensive tourwith a showing in Denmark’s leadingmuseum of photography, Museet forFotokunst in Odense, from August toOctober.
A new exhibition created specifically fortouring was The Darien Adventure, anaccount of the attempt to set up aScottish colony in Central America.Many historians believe that it was thefailure of this venture that precipitatedthe union of Scotland and England in1707. The Darien Adventure wascreated in association with the NationalArchives of Scotland and with financialsupport from the Royal Bank ofScotland. Following its launch on 4June, in the Bank’s Edinburghheadquarters, it went on to eleven othervenues.
The new Darien Adventure andChurchill touring exhibitions joinedfour exhibitions already on the road.George Mackay Brown, featuring theworld-famous Orkney poet and writer,visited eleven venues across Scotland inthe course of the year. NaomiMitchison, celebrating the career of theremarkable writer and campaigner, andcreated with support from The PostOffice, completed its tour with a visit tofour venues. Alasdair Gray, a gloriouscelebration of the Glasgow-based artistand writer best known for his ground-breaking novel Lanark, finished its tourwith showings at Edinburgh andDunfermline. Kenneth White, anexhibition on the Scots-born writer and
29
thinker who was until recently Professorof Twentieth-Century Poetics at theSorbonne, went on display for a monthin Edinburgh College of Art, while aFrench version of the same exhibitioncontinued to tour in France.
The Library was also pleased to host atravelling display marking Pushkin’sbicentenary. It went on show inDecember and January and providedthe focal point for a meeting of the
Ian McGowan, Librarian, Jacqueline Cromarty, Deputy
Head of Public Programmes, and Alison Turton, Archivist
at the Royal Bank of Scotland, at the launch of The
Darien Adventure, which was supported by the Bank.
Captured Shadows on show at Museet for Fotokunst,
Odense.
Phot
o: J
ack
Cro
mbi
e
30
EventsThe Library’s famous Gutenberg Biblewent on show to the general public on23 April to mark World Book Day, andmembers of staff from the Rare BooksDivision made themselves available toanswer questions. Printed in Germanyaround 1455, the Gutenberg Bible isthe first major example of a printedbook as we know it, and led to theprinting revolution that transformedsociety. Our copy is the only one inScotland, and is one of just twentyintact copies that survive worldwide.
The Library was a partner in theinternational Heritage Convention,‘Museums and Cultural Identity:Shaping the Image of Nations’,organised by The Robert GordonUniversity on 22-24 September 1999. A multi-disciplinary gathering ofinternational experts explored theinterpretation and presentation ofheritage assets, and was addressed byour Director of Public Services, DrAlan Marchbank, who spoke on‘Libraries as Museums of the Mind’.
Scottish Branch of the Britain-RussiaCentre on 14 December.
We also lent many important itemsfrom our collections to otherexhibitions, and continued our supportof the new Museum of Scotland withmajor loans from our manuscriptcollections. In the first half of the year,a loan of outstanding ecclesiasticalworks went on display in the Museum’smediaeval church gallery, among themthe richly illuminated Murthly Hours ofaround 1310 and the fifteenth-centuryCulross Hours and Aberdeen Psalter.Later in the year, these exhibits werereplaced by a cartulary from Cambus-
kenneth Abbey (1535) and anotherfrom Scone Abbey (fifteenth tosixteenth century), as well as a prayerbook probably written for RobertBlackadder, Archbishop of Glasgow,who died in 1508. We also lent theMuseum the only known manuscriptcopy of The Wallace, Blind Harry’s epicpoem of the 1470s. This poem createdthe Wallace legend that found its mostrecent expression in the filmBraveheart.
Another of our treasures, one of the two earliest surviving manuscripts ofThe Brus, John Barbour’s fourteenth-century verse epic celebrating theachievements of Robert the Bruce,went to the British Library for itsMillennium Tales exhibition.
One of the most unusual manuscriptsfrom our collections was lent to the ArtGallery of Nova Scotia for its exhibitionAt the Great Harbour: 250 Years on theHalifax Waterfront. It was a bilingualprayer book of 1759, written both in thelanguage of the Micmac people ofNorth America and in French, and oneof the earliest written examples of theMicmac language.
As well as collaborating with us on TheDarien Adventure, the NationalArchives of Scotland mounted theirown exhibition on this critical episodein Scotland’s history. We were delightedto be able to support them with theloan of eight significant manuscripts,including a letter containing an accountof the horrendous conditions exper-ienced by the Scottish emigrants as theysailed for the Americas on board TheUnicorn.
Loans made to the Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery included a number ofmanuscripts relating to the artistArchibald Skirving for the exhibitionRaeburn’s Rival: Archibald Skirving(1749-1819). Manuscripts and objectslent for the exhibition O Caledonia! SirWalter Scott and the Creation of
The mediaeval Mirror of the Life of
Christ, lent to Edinburgh’s City Art
Centre for its millennium exhibition.
A rare Micmac prayer book lent for
display in Nova Scotia.
Scotland included Sir Walter Scott’sportable writing desk and themanuscript of his first novel, Waverley.
Amongst the mediaeval religiousmanuscripts which went to Edinburgh’sCity Art Centre for its millenniumexhibition Light of the World: Christ’sStory told through Art were a prayerbook made in the Netherlands around1498 for James Brown, Dean ofAberdeen, and the finely-illuminatedTalbot Hours. Other loans went to theNational Galleries of Scotland for theirexhibition on Scotland and India, TheTiger and the Thistle, and for FromPencil to Press: Turner and Sir WalterScott. The Laing Art Gallery,Newcastle-upon-Tyne, received loansof material relating to travels abroadfor its exhibition Art Treasures in theNorth: Northern Families and theGrand Tour.
MS.
1900
Adv
.MS.
18.1
.7
31
The public was given a rare opportunityto see behind the scenes at therefurbished George IV Bridge Buildingon 25 September, Open Doors Day.This was the first time our headquartersbuilding had been opened up to thepublic in this way, and demand for theguided tours on offer was high. Visitorswere particularly impressed by thecomplex systems that had been put inplace to protect the national collectionsfrom the threat of fire.
Throughout the year, we also welcomedvisiting groups and societies, includingnine parties of students studyinglibrarianship and information science.
On 30 November – St Andrew’s Day –the 1999 Saltire Literary Awards wereannounced at a reception in the Library.The Research Book of the Year Award,which is sponsored by the Library, wentto Professor Priscilla Bawcutt of theUniversity of Liverpool for her two-volume The Poems of William Dunbar.Veteran poet George Bruce’s Pursuit:Poems 1986-1998 won the Scotsman/Saltire Society Book of the Year Award,and Michel Faber’s Some Rain MustFall won the Post Office/Saltire SocietyScottish First Book of the Year Award.
The sixth Robert Louis StevensonMemorial Award went to Ayrshire-bornwriter Maggie Graham, whose novelSitting among the Eskimos will bepublished in June 2000. The Award ismanaged jointly by the Library and theScottish Arts Council, and gives Scottishwriters an opportunity to develop theirwork during a two-month stay at Grez-sur-Loing in France, where RobertLouis Stevenson frequently stayed inthe 1870s and where he met his wifeFanny. The Library was pleased tocontinue its support of the previousyear’s winner of the Award, ChrisDolan, by hosting the launch of his newnovel, Ascension Day, on 23 August.
On 11 November, we hosted the launchof an important new guide for teachers.
Sources for Studying the Past, bySydney Wood, helps teachers makeeffective use of primary sources ofevidence, such as those available in theLibrary, and was published by theScottish Consultative Council on theCurriculum with support from theLibrary and other national institutionsand bodies. The book was formallylaunched by HM Senior ChiefInspector Douglas Osler.
Now in its seventh year, the Library’sElizabeth Soutar Craft BookbindingCompetition continued to attractentrants both from the UK and fromelsewhere in Europe. This year’swinners were announced at an awardceremony on 25 February. The overallwinner was Mark Ramsden, theGrimsby-based horologist, jeweller, andbookbinder who had also carried offfirst prize the previous year. The prizefor best student entry went to Julia VanMechelen from Diest in Belgium.
The year closed with the launch on 31March of Special and Named PrintedCollections in the National Library ofScotland, a guide to the Library’s mostimportant collections of rare andvaluable books – over 140 in all. Thebook was launched by Lord Crawford,who had been Chairman of the Library’sBoard of Trustees until October 1999,
and eleven of whose family collectionsare on long-term deposit in the Libraryand feature in the guide. The Library isgrateful to booksellers Bernard QuaritchLtd for supporting this publication, thecontent of which is also available on ourwebsite.
Professor Priscilla Bawcutt, whose edition of Dunbar’s
poems won the National Library of Scotland/Saltire
Society Research Book of the Year Award, pictured with
other Saltire Award winners George Bruce (left) and
Michel Faber.
The Gutenberg Bible on display for World Book Day.
Lady Soames – Sir Winston Churchill’s daughter – at the
launch of the exhibition Churchill: the Evidence.
Phot
o: R
ab J
acks
onPh
oto:
Wal
ter
Bell
Phot
o: M
oira
Leg
gat
28
TH E L I B R A R Y ’ S
commitment to the safetyof staff and visitors wasonce again reflected in
excellent results in a British SafetyCouncil independent audit. Ourheadquarters building on George IVBridge and our CausewaysideBuilding were examined using morestringent criteria than ever before,and an audit rating of 88% wasawarded, placing the Library in the4-star awards category.
Another measure of our commitmentto safety was the accident-free recordof our major £12.7m refurbishmentprogramme. No lost-time accidentswere recorded during theconstruction phases of these majorworks.
We continue to look for ways ofbenchmarking both our systems andperformance levels against others toensure we maintain an internalquality safety provision built uponbest value for money.
In January 2000, we hosted a two-daymachinery safety seminar run byspecialist trainers accredited by theInstitute of Occupational Safety andHealth (IOSH). The seminar wasattended by staff responsible forplant or machinery purchase andsafety and among those invited toattend were representatives of theEdinburgh International ConferenceCentre (EICC), the NationalGalleries of Scotland, the RoyalBotanic Garden, the Royal BlindSchool, Roslin Institute, and theRoyal Infirmary of Edinburgh. This
Health and safety
joint venture minimised the cost toeach body and allowed delegates toestablish links with fellowprofessionals in other institutions,and we intend to build upon thissuccess by organising similarseminars in the future.
Bill Jackson, our Buildings Manager,continued to be heavily involved inthe work of the American-basedNational Fire Protection Association,serving as Secretary to its Committeeon the Protection of CulturalResources. We were very pleased towelcome the Committee to Scotlandin August when, during its four-dayvisit, we were able to brief itsmembers on the closing stages of ourown major fire-protection works. At areception held in Lennoxlove House,Rhona Brankin MSP, DeputyMinister for Culture and Sport,spoke on fire prevention and theimportant role of the Library andHistoric Scotland in this field.
Other highlights of the 1999-2000 eventsprogramme
May 1999Rotary Ambassadorial Student Evening:overseas students from Rotary’s exchangeprogramme visit the Library.
June 1999Library staff take part in charity walk and cycle-ride in memory of their colleague Brian Logan.Proceeds go to the Macmillan Cancer ReliefFund.
July 1999Group of US librarians visit the Library.
August 1999A private view of the exhibition Churchill: theEvidence is held for Friends of the NationalLibraries and alumni of Churchill College,Cambridge.Library collaborates with the EdinburghInternational Book Festival to organise lectureson Churchill by Dr David Stafford and LadySoames.
September 1999Dansk Bibliofil-klub visits the Library to seeitems from its special collections.Celia Sandys delivers a lecture on hergrandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, as part ofthe lecture programme organised by theLibrary and the Edinburgh International BookFestival.Library hosts fact-finding visit by Germanlibrarians.Lecture by Dr Paul Addison on ‘Churchill andthe Great War’.
October 1999Swedish librarians visit the Library.School parties from as far afield as Kinlochlevencontinue to visit the Churchill exhibition.The Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre,Cambridge, Dr Piers Brendon, delivers theclosing lecture of the Churchill lecture series.Directory of the Lithographic Printers ofScotland 1820-1870, by David Schenck,published in association with EdinburghBibliographical Society and Oak Knoll Press ofDelaware.
November 1999Library hosts the first meeting of Europeanusers of the Voyager library system.
January 2000The Library works with the Robert BurnsWorld Federation and the National Museums ofScotland to create a Millennium Burns Supper,attended by First Minister Donald Dewar.
February 2000Aslib, the Association for InformationManagement, holds its Annual General Meetingin the Library.
March 2000Inter-Library Services and the British Libraryhold a one-day seminar for Scottish libraries oninter-library lending.
33
We wish to thank the followingindividuals and organisations whosegenerosity has added to the richness ofour collections in the course of the year.
Donors and depositors
DonorsThe late Dr W. R. AitkenDavid J. S. BarrieMrs J. P. BoakJoe BokasKeith S. Bovey Professor Roberto BruniThe Right Hon. The Lord ClintonThe Right Hon. The Earl of Crawford
and Balcarres, KT, PC
Professor Dr Horst W. DrescherBill DunlopLady ErskineMrs Eileen FraserMaurice FlemingGeneral Register Office (Scotland)Derek J. H. GlynneThe late Miss D. A. Goodchild Dr Jost HochuliDr Sidney HolgateMrs Dorothy L. Holloway Executors of the late Miss Katie
HorsmanRobert C. HydeTom LeonardDr Maurice LindsayIan H. MacDonaldMiss Alison MacLaganRuari McLean, CBE, DSC
Executor of the late Caitriona and Iona MacLeod
Mrs C. M. MastersTrevor Morrison
A. Q. MortonOrdnance SurveyMrs E. PeploeMiss Lorna PikeMajor Richard PowellIan RankinScotsman PublicationsScottish Arts CouncilMiss Adèle M. StewartMrs Ailsa StewartLady ThomsonMrs Ank van CampenJohn G. WalkerIrvine WelshPeter J. WestwoodDr William Zachs
DepositorsDr John W. CairnsT. & T. Clark LtdEdinburgh International Festival
SocietyDr E. FotheringhamDr Alexander HutchisonW. T. JohnstonMrs Sheila McGregorJ. Ross MacphailNational Trust for Scotland.Ms Tessa RansfordSaltire SocietyMrs Heather ScottMajor J. K. C. ScottScottish Liberal Democrats
Top to bottom:
Doris Ann Goodchild.
Tom Leonard.
Tessa Ransford.
Phot
o:Ll
oyd
Smith
Phot
o:©
Gor
don
Wrig
ht P
hoto
Lib
rary
Phot
o:Th
e Sc
otsm
an
34
TrusteesChairmanThe Right Hon. the Earl of Crawford
and Balcarres, KT, PC (to October1999)
Professor Michael Anderson, OBE, MA, PhD, FBA, FRSE (from May 2000)
Vice-ChairmanThe Right Hon. the Lord Emslie,
MBE, PC, LLD, FRSE
Ex-officioThe Lord President of the Court of
SessionThe Lord AdvocateThe Secretary of State for Scotland
(to July 1999)A Member of the Scottish Executive
(from July 1999)The Dean of the Faculty of AdvocatesThe Minister of the High Kirk (St
Giles’), EdinburghThe Member of Parliament for the
Central Division of the City ofEdinburgh (to July 1999)
The Member of the Scottish Parliamentfor Edinburgh Central (from July 1999)
The Crown AgentThe Lord Provost of EdinburghThe Lord Provost of GlasgowThe Lord Provost of DundeeThe Lord Provost of Aberdeen
Appointed by the CrownThe Right Hon. the Earl of Crawford
and Balcarres, KT, PC (to October1999)
Professor Kathleen J. Anderson, OBE, PhD, CBiol, FIBiol, CChem, FRSC, FRSE
Professor Michael Anderson, OBE, MA, PhD, FBA, FRSE (from May 2000)
Jack Dale, MA, BD, STM
Ruari McLean, CBE, DSC
John M. Menzies (to October 1999)
Trustees and senior staff
Appointed by the Faculty of AdvocatesThe Right Hon. the Lord Emslie,
MBE, PC, LLD, FRSE
Bruce Kerr, QC (to October 1999)Angus Stewart, QC
Malcolm G. Thomson, QC
Philip H. Brodie, QC
The Hon. Lord Coulsfield (from October1999)
Appointed by the UniversitiesProfessor Michael Anderson, OBE, MA,
PhD, FBA, FRSE (to May 1999) Professor Graham D. Caie, MA, PhD
Ivor G. Lloyd, BA, DipLib, MLib, ALA
Colin A. McLaren, BA, MPhil, FSAScot (to August 1999)
Appointed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
Councillor Elizabeth Maginnis (to September 1999)
Councillor Bill Lamb (from September 1999)
Co-optedLady Dunnett, OBE
Professor A. John Forty, CBE, PhD, DSc, FRSE, FRSA
Ian MacDougall, MA, MUniv
Michael F. Strachan, CBE, FRSE
Librarian and DirectorsLibrarian and Secretary to the Board
of TrusteesIan D. McGowan, BA, FRSA
Director of AdministrationMartin C. Graham, MA, DipLib
Director of Special CollectionsMurray C. T. Simpson, MA, PhD MA,
ALA, LRAM (from June 1999)
Director of Information and Communications Technology
R. Fred Guy, BA, MA, DipLib, ALA, MIInfSc
Director of General CollectionsAnn Matheson, OBE, MA, MLitt, PhD, DLitt
Director of Public ServicesAlan M. Marchbank, MA, PhD
35
TH E NAT I O N A L LI B R A RY
O F SC O T L A N D is a Non-Departmental Public Body
which in 1999-2000 was grant-aided bythe Scottish Executive EducationDepartment. Grant-in-Aid applied tothe Library’s running costs amounted to£10,837,000 for the year to 31 March2000. In addition, the Library receives aPurchase Grant which is for the specificpurpose of making appropriateadditions to the National Collection. In1999-2000 this grant was £958,000.
The bulk of the Library’s resources aredirected towards collection develop-ment, preservation, and user access tocollections: together these activitiesabsorbed 73% of the Library’s totalresources for 1999-2000. The remainingresources are applied to maintaining the Library’s estate and to generaladministration.
A summary of the Library’s finances isshown in the Statement of FinancialActivity and Balance Sheet which areincluded, in abridged form, on thispage. The Accounts of the Library aresubject to audit by the Comptroller andAuditor General, and these are availablefrom the Secretary of the Library whenthe audit has been completed.
Finance and statistics
Statement of financial activity 1999-2000 1998-99£000s £000s
INCOMING RESOURCES
Grant-in-Aid 11,795 11,782
Net income from revenue-earning activities 22 25
Gross income from grant-aided activities 24 13
Interest received 54 81
Endowment income 13 11
Trust funds and Bequests 93 129
12,001 12,041
RESOURCES EXPENDED
Collection development 3,809 3,808
User-access to collections 3,178 3,078
Preservation 897 888
Buildings 1,776 1,715
Publicity 270 328
Administration 913 913
10,843 10,730
NET INCOMING / (OUTGOING) RESOURCES 1,158 1,311
Change in market value of investments 125 ( 59)
Revaluation of assets 1,751 2,611
Net movement in funds 3,034 3,863
Fund balances brought forward – 1 April 1999 65,961 62,098
Fund balances carried forward – 31 March 2000 68,995 65,961
Summarised balance sheet as at 31 March 2000FIXED ASSETS 69,884 67,391
CURRENT ASSETS 1,132 1,251
Creditors – amounts due within one year 1,993 2,632
NET CURRENT ASSETS ( 861) ( 1,381)
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES 69,023 66,010
FINANCED BY
Creditors – amounts due after one year 28 49
ACCRUALS AND DEFERRED INCOME
Deferred Government Grants 32,798 31,362
CAPITAL AND RESERVES 36,197 34,599
69,023 66,010
36
Sponsorship and supportThe Library is grateful to thefollowing for their sponsorship andsupport:
Arts and Humanities Research BoardGraham Brown FundBinks TrustCarnegie Trust for the Universities of
ScotlandChurchill Archives Centre,
CambridgeMrs Elizabeth A. Clark’s FundThe Vivienne and Samuel Cohen
Charitable TrustCommittee on Electronic InformationFriends of the National LibrariesGannochy TrustGarfield Weston FoundationGoldsmiths’ CompanyAlexander Grant FundA. Sinclair Henderson TrustHeritage Lottery FundKeppie Bequest FundThe R. and D. Lauffer Charitable
FoundationLibrary and Information CouncilThe MacRobert TrustsJohn Menzies plcThe Miller FoundationThe National Art Collections FundThe Bill and Margaret Nicol
Charitable TrustBernard Quaritch LtdMrs Ruth Ratcliff’s FundReid Trust FundResearch Support Libraries
ProgrammeProfessor Denis Roberts Trust FundRoyal Bank of ScotlandScottish Cultural Resources Access
Network (SCRAN)Scottish Higher Education Funding
Council
Income other than Grant-in Aid 1998-99
Gross income from grant-aided activities 12%
Net income from revenue-earning activities
10%
Interest received 26%
Endowment income6%
Trust funds andbequests 45%
Preservation 8%
Administration 9%
Buildings 16%
Publicity 3%
Collectiondevelopment 35%
User access tocollections 29%
Expenditure 1998-99
Other occupations43%
Retired 11%
Academic staff 13%
Undergraduate students13%
Postgraduate students20%
User ProfileThe Library acts both as a major general research library and as a world centrefor the study of Scotland and the Scots. These roles are reflected in thecomposition of our users.
Occupation of Users 1999-2000Just under half the Library’s users (46%) came from the academic sector; the remainder came from a wide range
of backgrounds and included representatives of almost every occupation.
Figures based on users registered with Reference Services at the end of March 2000, plus short-term users registered with the
Scottish Science Library December 1999 to end March 2000. Map Library figures excluded.
Website usage 1999-2000Both the Library’s main websiteand our Churchill educationalwebsite recorded a dramaticincrease in visitors over the year.The graph shows the growth inmonthly user sessions.
Apr
May Jun Jul
Aug Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec Jan
Feb
Mar
30,000
15,000
0
Mainwebsite
Churchilleducational
website
