This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The building on George IV bridge

The National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (2288x1712, 693 KB) The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh Image taken by Maccoinnich April 2005 File links The following pages link to this file: National Library of Scotland User:Maccoinnich ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (2288x1712, 693 KB) The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh Image taken by Maccoinnich April 2005 File links The following pages link to this file: National Library of Scotland User:Maccoinnich ... United States Library of Congress, Jefferson building A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a nation to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. ... For other uses, see Library (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ...

It is based in a collection of buildings 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. For other uses, see Edinburgh (disambiguation). ... The George IV Bridge is an elevated street in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... For other uses, see Edinburgh (disambiguation). ... The University of Edinburgh (Scottish Gaelic: ), founded in 1582,[4] is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ...

The National Library of Scotland holds thirteen million printed items, including copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the original manuscript of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, the First Folio of Shakespeare and numerous jounrnals and other publications. A copy of the Gutenberg Bible owned by the U.S. Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible or the Mazarin Bible) is a printed version of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in... For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... The 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species First published in 1859, The Origin of Species (full title On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) by British naturalist Charles Darwin is one of the pivotal... The title page of the First Folio with the famous engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout The First Folio is the term applied by modern scholars to the first published collection of William Shakespeares plays; its actual title is Mr. ...

History

The National Library of Scotland is a relatively recent body, only formally established by Act of Parliament in 1925. Previously, Scotland's national deposit library was the Advocates Library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates. This was opened in 1689 and gained national library status in the 1710 Copyright Act, giving it the legal right to claim 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 national library in all but name. The Advocates Library is a law library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, founded in 1682. ... The Faculty of Advocates is the collective term by which what in England are called barristers are known in Scotland. ... A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. ...

By the 1920s, the upkeep of such a major collection was too much for a private body, and, with an endowment of £100,000 provided by Sir Alexander Grant of Forres, the library's contents were presented to the nation. The National Library of Scotland was formally constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1925. Alexander Grant (1734–1813) was a British army officer, businessman and politician in Upper Canada. ...

Sir Alexander Grant gave a further £100,000 – making his combined donations the equivalent of around £6 million today – for a new Library building to be constructed on George IV Bridge. Government funding was secured which matched Sir Alexander's donation.

Work on the new building was started in 1938, interrupted by the Second World War, and completed in 1956. By the 1970s, room for the ever-expanding collections was running out, and it was obvious that other premises were needed. The Causewayside Building opened in the south-side of Edinburgh in two phases, in 1989 and in 1995, at a total cost of almost £50 million, providing much-needed additional working space and storage facilities.

Since 1999, the Library has been funded by the Scottish Parliament. It remains one of only six legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is governed by a board of trustees. For the national legislative body up to 1707, see Parliament of Scotland. ...

See also

• John Murray Archive
• Scottish Publishers Association

John Murray is a British publishing house, renowned for the roster of authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Goethe and Charles Darwin. ... The Scottish Publishers Association (SPA), established in 1973 as the Scottish General Publishers Association with the support of the Scottish Arts Council, is the trade association of nearly 80 publishing companies in Scotland. ...

External links

• Official website