Day 16 - National Library of Scotland and Central Library

After a restful night's sleep in Dalkeith Palace, I was ready to explore Edinburgh on Monday morning. The first stop on our academic calender was the National Library of Scotland. Emma Faragher was our guide for the tour, though it wasn't much of a tour. She gave us a bit of history and background on the library and then let us walk through the exhibit on immigration they had displayed. So it was a little disappointing. They had an exhibit of John Murray, which was closed due to revamping, but I really wish I could have seen it, because he was Jane Austen's publisher and the material would have greatly aided my paper.

As far as the library goes, it resembles the British Library, in that it is a deposit library not a loan library. It started in the early 18th century as an advocates library. In 1710, the library was given the right to collect every printed book about Scotland and the Scottish culture. They have in their possession 14 million books and manuscripts, 300,000 music scores, and acquire 6,000 new items each week. Their collection is divided into 3 groups: rare books (anything before 1850), manuscripts, and modern collections.

After our visit to the library concluded, we had a few hours to kill until our next tour. Bookie, Jessica, Jen, Shay and I went for lunch and to explore Edinburgh Castle. Once we found our way to the castle, the line to get tickets was an hour wait and we were running out of time so we decided to try again later in the day. We did meet a really hot Scottish guy named Euan who helped us and took our pictures. Jessica and Bookie were lucky enough to get a picture with him.

After that, we went on a hunt for food. We were passing by St. Giles Cathedral when Bookie noticed the cafe sign. We went in and on our way to the cafe, we noticed a vigil area. We each lit a candle. Once we finished eating, we thought we might check out Hollyrood House.

On our way to Hollyrood House, the Queen's home away from home, we walked past a shop window where a little terrier, like the one in the Wizard of Oz, was laying in the window. It was so adorable! I didn't get a chance to get a photograph, but I wish I had. It's not something you see in America, at least not in Kansas, surprising considering it's the home of Dorothy.

We were not able to get into Hollyrood House with the time crunch but a few made plans to return later.

At 2:00, we met back up with the LIS group at the Central Library for our tour. We were split off into two groups. My group was led by Fiona Mylers.

The Central Library is actually a Carnegie Library. Andrew Carnegie donated £50,000 in 1886 to establish a free library. Opening in 1890, the Central Library offered a reference library, a lending library, and a news room to the public. Over the front door of the library on George IV Bridge is the phrase, "Let There be Light", a Carnegie trademark. After we were given a tour of the reference library, the art library, the music library, and the children's library, we congregated back into the meeting room for 'tea time'. The library provided tea and cookies for us while we listened to a colleague discuss the library's reader development program. After which they gave us each a tote bag with the library's logo on it. All in all, it was a very welcoming tour and they generally seemed to enjoy having us there. I think it was a favorite of everyone in the group.

Besides the short visit to the National Library, it was a pleasant first day in Edinburgh.

Until next time.

First Photo and Andrew Carnegie Photo from http://www.edinburgh-scotland.net/ and http://www.congregator.net/