The National library of Scotland (National Library off Scotland) is the library of registration of copyright for Scotland. It is located in a whole of buildings in the center of Edinburgh. The seat is on the bridge George IV, between the Old Town (old city) and the district of the Université. There exists also a modern building (years 1980) in a residential zone of the districts suds of the city, on Causewayside, built to accommodate some specialized collections (charts, library of science), and which offers greater storage capacity.

The National library of Scotland counts nearly a million books of which copies of the Bible of Gutenberg and the first specimen of work of Shakespeare.

History

The National library of Scotland is a rather recent organization, establishes only by one Act of the Parliament in 1925. Before that, the national library of deposit was in Advocates Library, skirting the faculty of lawyers. This one was open in 1689 and gained its statute of national library at the time of the Copyright Act of 1710. During the following centuries, the library added books and manuscripts to the collection thanks to purchases and the registration of copyright, creating a national library at which it missed nothing any more but the name.

In the years 1920, the maintenance of such a collection was too important for a private institution. Thus, the contents of the library were offered to the nation, with an equipment of £100 000 on behalf of Sir Alexander Grant off Forres. The National Library off Scotland was officially consisted an act of the Parliament in 1925

Sir Alexander Grant gave £100,000 again; what carries the amount of its donations combined with the equivalent of 6 million pounds sterling of today. These donations were used for construction of a new building on George IV Bridge.

Work for the new building started in 1938, stopped by the Second world war, and supplemented in 1956. In the years 1970, the place necessary to lodge the collection always growing started to miss. The building of Causewayside opened in the south of the city in two times, in 1986 and 1995, for total costs of almost 50 million pounds sterling.

Since 1999, the library is financed by the Scottish Parliament. It remains one of the six registrations of copyright of the United Kingdom and Ireland

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