When speaking to students who live in Edinburgh library staff tell them that they can join the National Library of Scotland (NLS).

At the minute that’s not strictly true – as the NLS along with all other libraries are under restrictions. But why do we say it would be good to consider joining when we have so much in our own libraries?

The main reason is that the NLS is a Legal Deposit Library – but what does that mean?

The NLS is one of six Legal Deposit Libraries in the UK. A Legal Deposit Library is governed by specific legislation:

• The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003
• Irish Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000
• Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print) Regulations 2013

This legislation allows these six libraries to claim a copy of any work published in the UK and Ireland, either in print or electronically as identified under the legislation. This includes more than just books and journal articles- but also newspapers and some content from the worldwide web.

So you can just imagine what they have on their shelves and servers! If you are interested in finding out more go to the information pages on the NLS:
https://www.nls.uk/about-us/legal-deposit

For law in particular, this has a great significance in Scotland. The National Library of Scotland was founded from the collection of the Faculty of Advocates’ Library, a private members’ organisation which is still considered to have one of the finest collections of Scottish Law material in existence.

From its formal opening in 1689, the Advocates Library in Edinburgh rapidly developed into the finest library in Scotland. Following the introduction of the Library’s legal deposit privilege in 1710, its book collection grew at an ever-increasing rate.

The Advocates Library gradually came to be seen as Scotland’s national library in all but name. In 1925, an Act of Parliament formally established the National Library of Scoland. The Faculty of Advocates then gifted its collection — with the exception of legal material — to the country.

(National Library of Scotland, ‘Advocates Collection’)

We have such a wonderful opportunity for access to rare and unusual material from having both the Advocates’ and NLS collections just around the corner from our campus, and so we highly recommend students take advantage of the resources they have available.