Rewriting the Rules of the Library

At the National Library, we are always championing the many benefits and powers of libraries. They shape lives and communities and serve as a welcoming sanctuary of safety, knowledge and companionship. This is clear from the thousands of love letters we received as part of our 'Dear Library' exhibition. The messages bear testament to the passion people feel for these spaces across the country, beautifully reflected on by writer Dave Coates in the context of the joy and possibilities offered by libraries. Our National Librarian, Amina Shah, also paid tribute to these 'lighthouses for the mind'.

This advocacy is now being continued in our reading rooms thanks to the addition of an artwork by Peter Liversidge. His large-scale installation, 'The Rules of the Library', is a list of edicts (or orders) designed to prompt visitors to reflect on the value and role of these spaces.

The artwork celebrates the National Library of Scotland not only as a place of preservation but also as an evolving site of creativity and curiosity. The arrival of the piece comes as we reflect on our past 100 years but also look to the future.

Researching the rules

Liversidge is renowned internationally for his conceptual practice centred on the writing of proposals. His typed works encourage viewers to engage with an artwork, space or societal rules with a heightened imagination.

The artist, who is based in London, carried out an eight-month research project at the Library's many buildings – from the box-making facility at Sighthill to the maps reading room at Causewayside – to develop 'The Rules of the Library'. He was already a regular visitor to Edinburgh and has been since childhood, as an aunt and uncle lived in the city. For this project, Liversidge spent a lot of time in the archives in Edinburgh and remotely viewed the repositories in and around Scotland. His work then extended to a wider investigation into library rules around the world, with some of these used in his piece coming from the Library of Congress and the Bodleian in Oxford.

His fascination with rules began as an art student, as he encountered strict regulations around preservation and collections access around the world. This interest is now as equally informed by popular culture as by academia. Liversidge cites a book by Lorraine Daston called 'RULES: (A Short History of What We Live By)' as being particularly influential in his approach to 'The Rules of The Library', along with three rules for living well, by Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed. The last of these features in 'The Rules of the Library':

1. Don't be afraid of anyone

2. Get a really good bullsh*t detector

3. Be really, really tender.

Loving our libraries

Other rules came from staff, and Liversidge spoke with many members of our teams during his residency. One of the things that was very important to Liversidge, process wise, was speaking to people working at the Library. He says he wanted them "to show me what they thought I should see, rather than me requesting something – as soon as you request a thing, the process becomes a little bit like an algorithm".

The artist described how every meeting confirmed his preconceptions that staff work there because they love the idea of a library, "whatever that idea is to you". He suggested that, for many, this is a place to facilitate and enable, rather than gate-keep.

Liversidge also spent time in the reading rooms and was surprised by how well-used they are. He would queue outside with other visitors for the doors opening at 10:00AM, soon recognising familiar faces and regulars. He says this opened his eyes to how much libraries are not only used for academic research but for looking up family history or other interests, or simply as a favourite spot to read the newspaper.

He found libraries to be communal places, which was something he wasn't prepared for at all. The noted that even though technology is changing many things in our daily lives, there is much to be said for how a library offers close communal access to information and allows people to encounter the past and present in person.

Ignoring the rules

Liversidge's completed artwork is a billboard-sized list of rules, typed on a manual typewriter and enlarged. The installation will sit in the General Reading Room at our George IV Bridge building in Edinburgh throughout the summer. In time, anyone interested in the development of the artwork, the rules of libraries, or rules more broadly and how they are used to control or transform societies, will be able to access the archive of Liversidge's research by requesting this material at the reading rooms.

The artist felt very fortunate to have been involved in the project and given the time to explore the archives. He loves that our visitors can now read the 'Rules', and the fact that, like many rules, they might choose to ignore them.

If you would like to follow the rules, free posters of 'The Rules of The Library' are available to take away from our reading rooms at George IV Bridge.