This institution seems more like a museum than a library, especially with their digital displays of famous Scots, including Darwin, Austen, Schliemann and more. However, as there was not a tour for this particular destination, my observations of this library are limited to my own experiences. The library's holdings include 14 million books and manuscripts, 2 million maps and atlases, 300,000 music scores, 32,000 films and videos, 25,000 newspapers and magazines and 6000 new titles per week. Important dates for the library are as follows:
1689: Advocates of Library established
1710: 1st Copyright Act
1925: National Library of Scotland
1956: George IV Bridge building completed
1995: Causeway building completed
2009: Opening of Digital Info Center
They also have a walk-through exhibit on the history of golf, and an archive on John Murray (main creator of the Oxford English Dictionary). One fascinating item was an example of an early graphic version of an Arthur Conan Doyle story "Exploits of a Brigadier General" from 1852, which is the oldest comic strip I have encountered. Historical materials on comics in the U.S. would place the creation of the comic strip closer to the dawn of the 20th century, so it is most interesting to find evidence which contradicts this.
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