- Digital collections
Digital collections
Illustration from
full-text collection
'Sabin Americana'.
full-text collection
'Sabin Americana'.
From our extensive digital collections we have a wide range of material you can access online and by visiting us.
All our digital resources are free to use. To access some collections you need to register with us.
Access to online publications, archives and databases
Visit our George IV Bridge Building for free access to thousands of full-text online research resources and abstracts. These licensed digital collections consist of:
- Hundreds of full-text reference works
- Thousands of full-text newspapers, journals and reports
- Hundreds of thousands of digitised books, periodicals and manuscripts spanning over five centuries
- Millions of records and abstracts via online services and databases.
Once you have an NLS library card you can use any of these resources in our General Reading Room.
- Remote access: If you have registered online and your main address is in Scotland, you can use many of these resources from any computer with internet access. See licensed collections — browse by access type for details.
Access to digitised NLS material online
On our websites you can see:
- Thousands of photographs, maps, music, books, manuscripts and more — visit the Digital gallery.
See also:
- Films in digital format: Thousands of films reflecting Scotland's history and culture have been digitised by the Scottish Screen Archive at NLS. Around 1,000 short clips are available on the Scottish Screen Archive website.
- Websites about Scotland: We collect selected websites reflecting Scotland's culture and knowledge. Snapshots of those we collected between 2004 and 2008 are now part of the UK Web Archive.