Care of the collections
Items that you consult in the Special Materials Reading Room are precious, and need to be treated with care.
Before you enter the reading room:
You must leave the following items in a locker in the cloakroom beside Readers' Registration:
- Heavy outdoor coat
- Wet outer garments
- Bags larger than 29cm x 21cm (A4).
Lockers take a £1 coin. Staff at the café till will give you change if you need it.
In the reading room:
- You can only use pencil to write with, for the protection of collection items. You can buy pencils in the NLS shop on the ground floor.
- Please be careful not to write on, lean on, mark or place working papers on top of any Library material.
- Wherever practicable, you shold read material on the foam supports provided. We can give you weighted beads to hold volumes open.
- Please follow lines of text using the slips of paper provided.
- If you are using photographic or painted materials, you must wear the cotton gloves provided.
- Please report any defect, damage or unopened pages to the invigilator.