The National Library of Scotland Online

The National Library of Scotland's website is full of fun and informative things to check out. One of the first things you notice when you go to the page is the links to what they call the "information treasure trove" of Scotland's knowledge, history, and culture, including hot topics such as the 500th anniversary of Scottish printing, and links to spotlighted items such as an introduction to Scottish family history research. Also, on the left there are quick links to search the main catalog, and to search other catalogs for further online resources. You can also browse the site by subject or use a keyword search to find something in the site.

The site is clean, easy to read, and full of easy to see links to help for users, including a first time visitors guide and direct links to collections and catalogs. The site really acts as both a catalog for the physical library and as a digital library and archive, which is incredibly helpful for people who want to see what they have but don't live anywhere near Scotland. For instance, the Smaller Catalogues and Online Databases section includes a Manuscripts catalog (records relating to manuscript collections from the 16th century, complete with a "general information" link; Scots Abroad, which covers emigration to America, Australia and New Zealand, including guides and correspondence history; a Bibliography of Scotland, with over 70,000 books, periodicals, and articles; a listing of major art books in Scottish libraries; thousands of maps digitized and available in a format that allows panning and zooming; among others.

One part of the site that I decided to explore was called The Word on the Street, the National Library of Scotland's online collection of nearly 1,800 broadsides, which are how the general public found out the news in the days before newspapers and TV news.


You can search the broadsides, dating from 1650 to 1910, by a single keyword, phrase, or year. You can also browse by title or subject. Some of the subjects that appear in the browse section include accidents, courtship, crime, dueling, shoemakers, Ireland, and pirates. Most of the broadsides have transcription, a probable date of publication, the "shelfmark" (where it can be found in the Scotland library, and you can even download a PDF version to look at it more in depth.

























The site also has a really good section for users, including information about the reading rooms, inter-library loans, copying services, and a link to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities.

The National Library of Scotland has over 14 million printed items, 100,000 manuscripts,. two million maps, and 25,000 newspaper and magazine titles, in 490 languages. The site is well laid out, easy to maneuver, and exceptionally information- and detail-heavy. Just about anything you want to know about Scotland (or almost anything else, for that matter) is already digitized and waiting for you to access it. I hope to actually visit this amazing library one day too!