Annual Review 2018-2019 (PDF)
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Preserving Memories 18 - 19 Welcome National Library of Scotland LibraryNational of Dr John Scally National Librarian Annual Review 2018 - 19 Our reach across Scotland is increasing. People from 100 years. We have plans to take these collections the Shetlands to the Borders can engage with an to locations around the country in the next few years. increasing amount of content as we digitise our 7KHFROOHFWLRQLVEHLQJGLJLWLVHGEXWPHDQZKLOHORRNRXWIRU collections and make them available online. Similarly, displays at both the Galleries and the Library this autumn. our touring displays, snapshots of our major exhibitions, are travelling around the country. We’re now entering We have given new meaning to what is possible with into the third year of our touring displays, and the waiting VRPHRIRXUFROOHFWLRQV7KHVWDUWRIWKH\HDUVDZWKH list from libraries around the country is a positive sign ¿UVWHYHUDUWLVWLFLQWHUSUHWDWLRQRIVFKRROH[DPSDSHUV of a desire to engage with the National Library. Upon digitising Scottish exam papers from the years 1888–1963 and making them available online, we offered Partnerships with Scotland’s universities are an important EXUVDULHVIRUDUWLVWLFµUHVLWV¶:RUNVLQFOXGHGDVKRUW¿OP feature of our work in promoting research and providing involving an intricate dance to a geometry paper, and a scholarship opportunities. Our collaboration with the punk rendition of a mathematics paper. University of Edinburgh allowed us to host placements for students from the Centre for the History of the Book. Our engagement with young people is a priority for the It also resulted in one of the most thought-provoking National Library. We partnered with YouthLink to deliver displays we held this year – Strike for Freedom – the Youngwummin, a creative response to our collections display of items related to the American abolitionist VXUURXQGLQJWKH)LUVW:RUOG:DU7KH\RXQJSHRSOH Frederick Douglass. Douglass resided in Edinburgh for carried out thoughtful research into what it must have a time in the mid-19th century and drew large crowds been like to be a woman in Scotland in the early 20th as a public orator. People from all over the world visited century and delivered an excellent creative performance Strike for Freedom to see items that were on public and treasures display which ran over the course of the GLVSOD\IRUWKH¿UVWWLPH7KHH[KLELWLRQZDVVXSSRUWHG summer. It was an excellent introduction to our major by a comprehensive series of talks, tours, events and exhibition, A Better World? Scotland after the First World War. D¿UVWUDWHDFDGHPLFSXEOLFDWLRQ More young people are working behind-the-scenes at It is two years since we opened at Glasgow’s Kelvin our buildings in Edinburgh and Glasgow. With the help of Hall, and it was time to formalise our partnership with the JHQHURXVIXQGLQJIURPSULYDWHGRQRUVZH¿QGRXUVHOYHV University of Glasgow. We have numerous collaborative in the position of being able to give young people an doctoral partnerships with the University, in areas such introduction to the skills and development they need to DVSXEOLFKHDOWKWKHLQGXVWULDOUHYROXWLRQDQGDUWL¿FLDO become conservators across a range of materials. As the intelligence. We also partner with them in delivering digitisation of our collections accelerates, so does our SXEOLFDQGHGXFDWLRQDOOHFWXUHVDQGVFUHHQLQJV7KH protection of some of the Library’s most fragile formats sheer breadth of activity is what is most impressive such as video and shellac records. and we wish to maintain the momentum. All of this work could not be achieved without the 7RJHWKHUZLWKWKH1DWLRQDO*DOOHULHVRI6FRWODQGZH generosity of our supporters, who continue to assist made a major acquisition at the start of the year, the LQWKHIXQGLQJRIRXUDPELWLRXVSODQV7KDQN\RXWR MacKinnon Photographic Collection, a cache of over everyone who has engaged with the Library over 14,000 photographs of life in Scotland over the past the last year. Contents Safeguarding Collections Growing, preserving and digitising national collections 04 Improving Access 08 Future is digital Promoting Research Collaborations and support 12 Supporting Learning 16 Education and residencies Inspiring Engagement Exhibitions and events 20 Reaching Out 24 Our impact around Scotland Funding Our Work Income and expenditure 2018 - 19 27 04 As guardian of the published National Library of Scotland LibraryNational of and recorded memory of Scotland, we will continue to Annual Review 2018 - 19 collect, preserve, and make available a range of materials that capture Scotland’s memory and contribution to world knowledge. 05 Safeguarding Collections Acquisitions Ambassador’s Ball and James Ferguson’s 7KHOLWHUDU\DUFKLYHUHODWHVWR Vasilisa and the Witch’s ‘Astronomical rotula’ +DG¿HOG¶V¿UVWWZRFROOHFWLRQVRI poetry – Almanacs and Nigh-No- Fire by Joanna Robson, c. 1752 Place – and includes drafts, mostly 2018 of published work. :HKDYHDGGHGPRUH¿QHERRNVWR 7KHDUFKLYHDOVRLQFOXGHVVHYHUDO our collections, made by Edinburgh- notebooks and sketchbooks revealing based illustrator and book artist +DG¿HOG¶VFUHDWLYHSURFHVVDVVKH Joanna Robson. WUDYHOOHGRYHUVHDV±FKLHÀ\LQ&DQDGD and Mexico – as well as artworks, Ambassador’s Ball is one of 20 photographs, press cuttings and FRSLHVRIDOLPLWHGHGLWLRQ7KH ‘ransom-demand’ poems made lasercut concertina book is inspired from Shetland Times headlines. by the Spring Festival that took place in 1935 at Spaso House, then residence of the US Ambassador in Moscow. It was an extravagant and chaotic party featuring more than 100 ¿QFKHVSKHDVDQWVURRVWHUVJRDWV and a baby bear. One of the guests at 7KHµDVWURQRPLFDOURWXODVKHZLQJ the party was writer Mikhail Bulgakov, the change and age of the moon, the who used the event as inspiration for a motion of the sun, moon and nodes, famous scene in his novel The Master with all the solar and lunar eclipses’ and Margarita. is a rare survivor. It depicts a spiral of years from 1752 to 1800 and shows We also purchased one of 30 editions the ecliptic with 12 signs through of Vasilisa and the Witch’s Fire, which the sun travels over the course which illustrates a scene from Russian of the year. By rotating the discs the fairytale, Vasilisa the Beautiful. days of the new and full moons can be calculated. A self-taught astronomer from Keith, Banffshire, Ferguson began work on Alasdair Gray the rotula as early as 1739. He had silkscreen prints a version engraved in Edinburgh in 7KLVURWXODLVDODWHUHGLWLRQ We added a set of six silkscreen prints printed in London, likely around of images from Alasdair Gray’s novel 1752. Ferguson wrote accompanying Lanark, together with a print of an instructions to explain its use, with image of ‘Prometheus’ from Gray’s worked examples, editions of which 1984 book Unlikely Stories, Mostly are in our collections. WRWKHFROOHFWLRQV7KHSULQWVDUH signed, numbered and dated by Gray. 3DSHUVRI-HQ+DG¿HOG Lanark is widely regarded as the most VLJQL¿FDQW6FRWWLVKQRYHOSXEOLVKHGLQ Shetland-based poet and artist the second half of the 20th century and -HQ+DG¿HOGZRQWKH76(OLRW these prints are an important addition poetry prize for her 2008 collection, to our extensive print and manuscript Nigh-No-Place. collections of Alasdair Gray’s work. Safeguarding Collections 06 Poster for The Artist A National Bibliography century – only a small number of Gaelic manuscripts with a Scottish periodical, 1897 ¿WIRUWKHVWFHQWXU\ connection survive from this early National Library of Scotland LibraryNational of Ever since our foundation in 1925, SHULRG7KHPDMRULW\DUHZULWWHQLQ we have been involved in compiling Gaelic script covering a wide range and publishing Scotland’s national of topics, and are often attractively ELEOLRJUDSK\7KHLQLWLDOIRFXVZDV decorated. Medical manuscripts and on historical bibliography, but from poetry collections form particularly 1956 we recorded contemporary strong groups, but there are also publications, resulting in a suite of historical texts, heroic tales, saints’ Annual Review 2018 - 19 different bibliographies in various lives, prayers, charms, genealogy, formats. More recently, we decided and place-name lore. to unify all our bibliographies into one new National Bibliography Antiquarian music of Scotland. acquisitions 7KLV\HDUZHSXEOLVKHGDGDWDVHW 7KLVKDVEHHQDQXQXVXDOO\ RIWKH¿UVWYHUVLRQRIELEOLRJUDSKLF strong year for antiquarian music records for the National Bibliography acquisitions, with a rare addition of Scotland which references to our world-class collection of materials published in Scotland and/ early Handel editions and a version or are in Scots or Scottish Gaelic. of the British national anthem We are now developing a dedicated ZLWKSDUWLFXODUVLJQL¿FDQFHIRU online resource to allow people to Scottish history. explore the bibliography. Head of Rare Books, Maps and Music, Helen The Artist, published monthly in Vincent, who is also Chair of the G.F. Handel, edited by London by Archibald Constable & International Federation of Library Hugh Bond. London, Co., included art news from around Associations (IFLA) Rare Books [between 1787 and 1789] %ULWDLQ7KH$SULOLVVXHLQFOXGHG and Special Collections Section, an article by Scottish journalist Neil presented a paper on the National Twelve anthems for one, two, three 0XQUR µ7KH\HDU¶V Bibliography to an international and four voices is a rare compilation DUWLQ6FRWODQG¶7KLVOLWKRJUDSKHG audience at IFLA’s World Congress in of anthems drawn from Handel’s poster advertising the April issue .XDOD/XPSXU7KHSDSHULVDYDLODEOH oratorios for use in worship. It shows was produced, presumably for the LQWKH,)/$/LEUDU\OLEUDU\LÀDRUJ the popularity