Today we’re celebrating Midwifery Day with a look at its earliest bestseller. Just about 200 years ago, this book was published: Aristotle and midwifery – what’s that all about? And who was Culpeper? Let me take you right back to the 17th century where this story begins. At that time and well beyond, midwifery was […]
Volunteers working in Collections Audit
Volunteering in the Collections auditing department at National Library of Scotland: a testimony By Imogen Fitzpatrick and Jeevan Sanghera Imogen and Jeevan’s time volunteering in the Collections auditing department has been a fun and rewarding experience. We have gained valuable insights into the heritage and conservation sector, providing us with possible career pathways and industry […]
Lockdown reading: Alistair MacLean’s “When eight bells toll”
In order to build and promote the Library’s collections you need to have at least some familiarity with them which means doing a bit of reading. Sadly contrary to what some might think National Library of Scotland staff don’t spend their working days reading the collections, we have too many other things to do. So […]
#LetterstotheLibrary
Hi all, My name is Niamh, I’m the archivist managing Donegal County Archives, the local authority archive service of Donegal County Council. For those of you who don’t know, Donegal is a large, mainly rural, county in the far north of Ireland. It is in the Republic of Ireland, though we share a border with […]
Escape to the mountains (on film)
At a time when libraries and cinemas are physically closed, and millions of us around the world are staying at home, the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) is encouraging people to explore and enjoy the free film heritage that institutions like the National Library of Scotland provide. With tens of thousands of films to […]
Happy 60th Birthday Ian Rankin
Today marks the 60th birthday of the UK’s number one best-selling crime writer, Ian Rankin. To celebrate Mr. Rankin’s latest milestone, we thought it appropriate to dedicate this post to his other love: music.
#LetterstotheLibrary
Dracula in Dr Seward’s Library The Library is always there in a crisis. At life’s critical junctures, when there’s no choice but to adapt to change, the Library is a constant support. Here we are again, only this time, the feeling is that the ‘crisis’ has yet to take recognisable shape. More than that, it’s […]
Archiving Scotland’s response to COVID-19
If you look at traditional media such as newspapers and magazines just now it often feels like everything is about coronavirus. The National Library of Scotland as you would expect will collect the newspapers, official publications and magazines that appear during the pandemic and when they are published the inevitable books that will chronicle this […]
#LetterstotheLibrary
Letter from the Medical Library I work as a Helpdesk Supervisor for the Medical Libraries of the University of Edinburgh. This means that I normally divide my time between the Royal Infirmary and the Western General Hospital, where the libraries are located. We provide a necessary service for medical students, researchers and medical staff. For […]
A Library placement
Hi there! My name is Tara and I am an Information and Library Science MSc student at the University of Strathclyde. From January to March I was on a student placement at the National Library of Scotland. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to gain some real work experience and put theories from my […]