National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland grew out of the Advocates Library, belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, founded in 1689. At this time it was granted, by the 1710 Copyright Act, the right to own one copy of everything published in Great Britain. In 1925, Parliament passed the National Library of Scotland Act, creating the National Library. Work began on the George IV Bridge Building, in 1938, started with a donation by Sir Alexander Grant and was completed in 1956, and the new library building was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Since then two other expansions have been opened: The Causeway building in 1989 and 1995, two phases of construction and the Visitor Center in 2009.
The National Library contains over 14 million books and manuscripts, 2 million maps and atlases and 300,000 music scores. Also in the collection they house, 32,000 films and videos, 25,000 newspapers and magazine titles and add 6000 items to the collection each week. The library is funded by Scottish Parliament and is governed by a Board of Trustees.
The National Library of Scotland contains many valuable treasures including: Timothy Pont’s manuscript maps of Scotland (1583-1614), Ancient Family Manuscripts such as those of the Clan Sinclair and the last letter from Mary Queen of Scots. The Visitor's Center includes many displays of outfits and items of famous people in Scottish history. One other display that was included was a large walkthrough display on the history of golf.

Visit the National Library of Scotland at http://www.nls.uk/ .