General Reading Room

Care of the collections

All readers must take utmost care of items in the National Library of Scotland's collections. We will immediately withdraw the ticket of anyone who damages NLS material.

Details about the care of the collections are available in the Library's regulations. We issue the regulations with ticket application forms when you visit in person. They include the following:

• You must leave all heavy outdoor coats, wet outer garments, and bags bigger than 29cm x 21cm (A4) in the cloakroom before you enter the reading rooms.
• To protect the collections, you can only use pencil in the reading rooms.
• You must not write on, lean on, or mark any item.
• You must not bring into the reading rooms anything which might damage our material, for example:
  • Pens
  • Food, drink, chewing gum
  • Glue, bottles of ink or correction fluid
  • Scissors, knives or any sharp implements
  • Highlighter pens
  • Staplers, etc.
• In special circumstances we may ask you to wear gloves, which we will provide.

General Reading Room main page