National Library of Scotland events are free and take place in our George IV Bridge Building, unless we state otherwise.
List updated: 5 December.
December events
See also:
Workshops and tours
Kelvin Hall events
Christmas market
with '24 Doors of Advent' tours
Join us for our Christmas market, with stalls selling handmade gifts and festive treats galore. Enjoy a 15 per cent discount on everything in our shop. You can also drop in to an hour-long storytelling session, one at 10.30 another at 12.00. A delightful way to see in the Christmas season.
As part of Edinburgh's Christmas '24 Doors of Advent', we are also running tours of our George IV Bridge building. The tours offer the chance to learn more about our history and collections and to see 'behind the scenes'. Each tour lasts around an hour and can be booked in advance.
Thursday 5 December
10.00-18.00.
Free. Drop in for the market and storytelling sessions.
All the tours are now fully booked.
Starving for heroines
On women writers, fame and forgetting
Literary critic and cultural historian Joanna Scutts considers why we are constantly rediscovering women writers, and how they get lost in the first place. She explores the structures that shape literary fame, and argues against letting our hunger for individual icons blind us to the diversity of women's voices. Real change — in how we read, remember, and write about brilliant women and brilliant books — depends on raising up a crowd of diverse, surprising, and transformative voices, Joanna argues.
Thursday 12 December
14.00
Free. This event is fully booked.
Book of the 1980s
Alvin Toffler's 'The Third Wave'
Head of General Collections at the Library Graeme Hawley, shares his thoughts on Alvin Toffler's work 'The Third Wave'. Published in 1980, the book analysed the industrial world at an important historical tipping point, and explained why the world people knew was about to change so fundamentally. The Library received 2.9 million publications in the 1980s, but Graeme feels that this book stands out above them all. In this talk, he considers what it can tell us about life today.
Tuesday 17 December
14.00
Free. Book 'Book of the 1980s: Alvin Toffler's 'The Third Wave'' on Eventbrite or phone 0131 623 3734.
Back to the future 1979-1989, the film
This thought-provoking film show promises to take you through the 1980s in 50 minutes. It reflects on the decade by setting some of the major events and changes to a 1980s soundtrack (including songs from Kraftwerk and OMD). Originally screened during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this installation is back by popular demand. A great event for families, friends, and Christmas outings.
Wednesday 18 December
14.00
Free. Book 'Back to the future 1979-1989, the film' on Eventbrite or phone 0131 623 3734.
