Supporting learning
Skills and experience for early-career professionals
We're committed to supporting young people and early career professionals with little or no experience into employment by offering paid internships, placements and volunteering opportunities. We also support the people who already work for us to grow and thrive. Here are some of the people we helped to gain experience, some of whom have since successfully moved on to longer-term employment.
Lauren McCombe, Google Arts and Culture project intern
Last September, Lauren joined us on a six-month paid internship to work on a project to assess and prepare exhibitions content for the Google Arts and Culture service. Before coming to us, Lauren had been applying for jobs in libraries for two years but her limited experience in the sector meant she was unable to secure an interview. Frustrated and disheartened she applied for the internship at the Library with little expectation of success. But we immediately recognised her potential and out of a staggeringly high number of quality applications, Lauren was appointed.
Lauren spent her time learning the Google Arts and Culture platform, exploring and reworking content and images from past exhibitions before publishing them online via the service. She also advised the Library of the resourcing requirements for preparing the exhibitions, produced usage metrics and a report assessing the service. We provided Lauren with training, gave her an understanding of how the Library operates and offered her employability support to help her re-enter the job market.
Lauren's internship was an extraordinary success. In her we got a talented, resourceful and fun colleague who not only delivered on her project but exceeded our expectations. But more importantly, Lauren has gone on to take up a permanent position at Stirling Council Libraries. They are lucky to have her!
Lauren's internship was supported by the National Librarian's Innovation Fund and the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) Innovation Fund.
View Lauren's work at artsandculture.google.com
Helen Wiles, Usability Intern
As we continue to develop and launch new services, we know we must engage more with our users to ensure these services meet their needs. To support us in this area we recruited Helen Wiles to work with us for nine months as our usability intern.
Helen joins us straight from graduating from the University of Manchester with a First-Class Honours degree in literature. Having undertaken casual work to support her through her studies, Helen was eager to gain work experience to help her enter the job market. Helen did not have any experience of usability, but this wasn't a concern for us. We saw during the recruitment process that she had all the qualities we were looking for: confidence, self-motivation, ambition and great people skills.
Helen spent several weeks becoming familiar with usability and all it entails, and before long she was designing tests to gather information on how users were interacting with some of our existing services so that we might learn where to focus our efforts in making improvements. She completed tests on our integrated catalogue, Library Search; our open collections and data platform, Data Foundry; and the collections section of our website. Helen also presented to senior management, making the case for users to be at the heart of all service development.
Helen secured employment at the Home Office as a User Researcher, which will commence after her internship at the Library. Much deserved.
Joe Jackson, Preventive Conservation Intern
The Collections Care team was delighted to welcome Joe Jackson as the Library's first Preventive Conservation Intern in September 2019. He is with us for a year.
Joe had just completed a Masters in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria University when he joined us. Hosting this internship has given the Library a focus and drive to deliver projects that would not otherwise have been a priority.
Joe has been extremely self-motivated and enthusiastic. He developed a new storage methodology for tricky relief-maps; he introduced integrated pest management trapping and data analysis; he reviewed and renewed our emergency kit and researched sustainable and recyclable exhibition mounts.
His year-long paid internship has been generously funded by the Clothworkers' Foundation, and came to us via the Institute of Conservation scheme.
Emily Gibbs, UK Research and Innovation Policy Intern
We hosted our first intern under the UK Research and Innovation Policy Internship Scheme for doctoral candidates. Emily Gibbs, University of Liverpool, worked with us to prepare policy briefings. Emily's first project explored how collections are assessed for sensitive content, and her second focused on law enforcement access to the Library's electoral registers.
In preparing her briefings, Emily reviewed legal and ethical requirements, interviewed internal and external practitioners, examined the Library's current practices, and investigated standards elsewhere, including the practices of more than 300 local archives. These policy briefings have been instrumental in focusing the Library's development in these areas.
Claire Hutchison, JMA Project Conservator
In January 2020, we were most happy to welcome Claire Hutchison back to the Collections Care team. Claire was with us for nine months the previous year as our Alexander Graham Paper Conservation Trainee. The experience Claire gained through this placement meant that she was the perfect candidate when we were looking to recruit a Project Conservator to continue the work on the John Murray Archive. Claire will be working with us for a year.
Rachel Nimmo, Graduate Apprentice
In the Library we create, process, transform and publish huge amounts of data ranging from information about our financial transactions, statistics relating to visits to our exhibitions and website, and the files, text and metadata output from our digitisation studios. Data has become central to our operations however there is a limited number of staff with skills to work with data at scale. To help address this skills-gap we encouraged Rachel Nimmo, our Assistant Data and Systems Librarian, to apply to Edinburgh Napier University as a Graduate Apprentice in Data Science under the Skills Development Scotland's apprenticeship scheme.
Now in her first year, Rachel attends university once a week to learn coding, human-machine interaction, and mathematics for software engineering. Rachel also undertakes projects that relate directly to her work in the Library. Later in her course the focus will turn to pure data science giving her the skills and tools to work efficiently with Library data. With a deeper understanding of data, Rachel will then be in a position to share her knowledge and experience with colleagues.
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage volunteer programme
Unlocking our Sound Heritage (UOSH)is a UK-wide project that will help save our sounds and make them accessible for everyone. The project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and managed by the British Library, with 10 hubs across the UK. The National Library is home to Scotland's hub.
The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is complemented by an ambitious outreach and engagement programme. Part of this involves recruiting and training volunteers to support the team's work, and raising the profile of sound archives.
We wanted to give our volunteers a useful experience, so as well as getting a taste of digitisation, cataloguing, rights clearance and imaging, we also provided careers advice and audio curation training. Volunteers were asked to curate something of their own, inspired by the recordings, and you can see some of their work on scotlands-sounds.nls.uk
To date, the project has engaged 74 volunteers, who have delivered 464 volunteering days, and we're set to continue this busy schedule as soon as we're able. Feedback from volunteers has been overwhelmingly positive. Here are some of their testimonials:
'I enjoyed hearing very old stories I would never have had the chance to hear, learning about different types of tapes and the digitisation process.'
'I learned a lot, developed new skills, rare among volunteering opportunities.'
'I learned new skills: patience, listening skills, transcribing, and using spreadsheets.'
The project has offered opportunities for career development. The first seven volunteers to work on the project have gone on to great things based on their experience:
- Lucy was our first student placement from the University of Glasgow and went on to find work with Glasgow City Council as an Assistant Librarian
- Abi moved from part-time employment as a subtitler into a full-time role as an Assistant Archivist for Twig Education
- Toby secured a place on the University of Glasgow MSc Information Management and Preservation course and is on track to complete with an A. He continues to share his experience with other community archives through ongoing volunteering.
We were fortunate to recruit some of the volunteers ourselves:
- Louise joined our Access & Events Team at the National Library at Kelvin Hall, while Kirsty has recently started with our Rare Books department.
Rebel Roots
This year, we've been working in partnership with Fast Forward, a youth work charity based in North Edinburgh, on a project called Rebel Roots. The project aims to engage young people, aged 16–25 years, with youth sub-cultures — fashion, dance, music, and design — from the 1960s to the present day. As well as exploring the history of youth sub-cultures, the project has focused on breaking down generational barriers, improving confidence, and supporting the young people to be more aware of their roots and gain a greater sense of place of where they live.
The group took part in a seminar on a range of printed material highlighting fashion and music trends over the past 60 years, and a workshop exploring album covers and artwork where they created their own album covers. They also visited our Moving Image Archive in Glasgow to view films of young people from previous decades. This visit also included a creative element, making collages which were featured in the final display to showcase the project to supporters, parents, and other audiences.
Rebel Roots is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Inspiring engagement
Back to the future: 1979–1989
In 2019, we wound the clock back 40 years with a multimedia retrospective on the 1980s called 'Back to the future: 1979–1989'. Between May and November, we published 63 essays on a bespoke website covering a wide range of topics and themes from the closure of the Gartcosh steelworks, revolution in Europe, and the invasion of Grenada, to denim, computer technology, and synth pop. We also featured 39 films from our Moving Image Archive including a hen party in Glasgow, an anti-nuclear demonstration outside of Torness, and a visit by Princess Diana to a marmalade factory in Dundee. Guest essays from Ian Rankin, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Damian Barr and many others, joined essays written by Library staff to shine a light on this extraordinary decade.
A programme of public events also ran throughout the year to support the retrospective. A full week of 80s activities took place in July at Kelvin Hall, resulting in a fourfold increase in visitors that week. A range of attractions drew three generations of people together, with young people amazed to learn about the mysterious art of rewinding a cassette, and older visitors highly engaged in discussions about the impact these 'old' technologies had had on their lives. Iconic arcade games (Ms Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Frogger) lined the avenue in Kelvin Hall, and were particularly of interest to those attending the computer games seminar. We also held free film screenings of 'Gregory's Girl', 'Local Hero', and 'Highlander', drawing great numbers to the National Library at Kelvin Hall once more.
During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we ran a film installation at George IV Bridge on continuous loop, setting themes of the decade to an 80s soundtrack. August also saw the opening of the 80s 'Collections in Focus' exhibition, featuring just a handful of the Library's 2.9 million publications from that decade. A season of public events in December brought the retrospective to an end.
Media coverage for 'Back to the future' was excellent, no doubt assisted by our use of double-denim, fabulous wigs, luminous threads and roller boots. The retrospective travelled especially well on Twitter under our #Talking1980s hashtag, with a reach well in excess of 20 million.
Aberdeen Breviary pop-up day
Saturday 30 November 2019
When we acquired this exceptionally significant book five years ago, we said we would take it back to Glasgow. So we had a public display of one of the first ever works to be printed in Scotland on St Andrew's Day at the National Library at Kelvin Hall (this book also includes the first mention of St Andrew in print in Scotland).
This copy of the Aberdeen Breviary returned to Glasgow for the first time since it was used by Nicholas Ferguson and other local clergy at St Mungo's Cathedral in the early 1500s. Although the book gets its name from Aberdeen, the city where it was compiled, it was created as the first service book specifically for Scottish use.
There are only three other surviving sets of both volumes of the Aberdeen Breviary. It was printed by Walter Chepman in 1509, and you can clearly see the corrections and modifications he made as he was developing the process. The Breviary was the reason James IV granted a licence for the first printing house — Edinburgh-based Chepman and Myllar — and it is a fine example of Scottish Renaissance education and culture.
Byrd International Singers respond to the collections
viewing a choir book
Friday 2 August 2019
Ahead of their performance that evening at St Giles' Cathedral, Byrd International Singers visited us for a special viewing of a 16th-century choir book, before treating Library staff and visitors to an acapella performance on the main stairs of our George IV building.
The 'Scone Antiphoner', also called The Carver Choir-book, which belonged to Robert Carver, a canon of Scone Abbey, is one of very few pre-Reformation church choir books to have survived. Dating from the 16th century, it contains works by both Carver himself and other composers of the period.
Following the viewing, a choir of approximately 20 people performed pieces from the 'Scone Antiphoner', two of which were composed by Carver.
Byrd International Singers Manager, Margaret Obenza said: 'Thanks to the entire library staff who made this possible for us. I don't think it's an understatement to say that it changed people's lives. Seeing and touching that manuscript was incredibly meaningful for everyone on the course and they can't stop talking about it. It really made the past feel alive and real, and underscored the true timelessness of this music.'
At the Water's Edge: Photographs from The MacKinnon Collection
Friday 16 November 2019 – Saturday 15 February 2020
Just over a year since its acquisition, we exhibited a taster of the vast MacKinnon Collection at George IV Bridge, while the National Galleries of Scotland exhibited highlights from the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
In 2018, we joined forces with the National Galleries of Scotland to purchase the collection — made up of more than 14,000 photographs dating from the 1840s to the mid-20th century in Scotland — with the help of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Scottish Government and Art Fund.
The MacKinnon Collection was put together by collector Murray MacKinnon, who established a successful chain of film-processing stores in the 1980s, starting from his pharmacy in Dyce, near Aberdeen.
The collection covers an expansive range of subjects — including family portraits, working life, street scenes, sporting pursuits, working life, transport, landscapes and cityscapes. Until last year, it was deemed one of the last great collections of Scottish photography still in private hands.
Concurrent exhibitions opened the same day in November: 'At the Water's Edge' at the National Library, and 'Scotland's Photograph Album' at the Portrait Gallery.
Taking inspiration from Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters for 2020, the National Library's 'At the Water's Edge' reflected on this theme, with a strong emphasis on social history and the changing nature of Scotland's coastal communities.
We also launched a new learning resource, celebrating Scotland's coastal communities with a small sample from the MacKinnon Collection. Pinned to a historical map, people can view a selection of photographs from Orkney to North Berwick, Ballantrae to Stornoway and places in between. People can also listen to contributions from retired fishermen and view archive film footage of Aberdeen trawlers and Herring Girls. The resource also contains learning activities in Scots, Gaelic and English mapped to the Curriculum for Excellence.
Family-friendly Saturdays at the Library
In February, we launched a new programme of regular Saturday morning workshops for families with children aged 5–8 years. This pilot programme is the first step in creating a more family-friendly environment within the Library — welcoming families into the building, and encouraging adults and children to learn, play, and create together.
Each one-hour workshop is inspired by an aspect of the Library collections, with the first set of workshops celebrating the Year of Scottish Coasts and Waters. There were stories and craft activities relating to the temporary display of photographs, 'At the Water's Edge' — images from the MacKinnon Collection exploring coastal communities around Scotland. The first workshop proved to be very popular, with 35 people attending.
Our programme was in its infancy when we had to close our buildings due to COVID-19, so we moved our family offer online. Continuing on the theme of Coasts and Waters, activities have focused on seabirds and lighthouses.
Future initiatives for developing family learning include family trails and activities to accompany forthcoming exhibitions.
Northern Lights: The Scottish Enlightenment
Friday 21 June 2019 – 22 March 2020
Our major exhibition of the year, 'Northern Lights', explored the Scottish Enlightenment. We have an unparalleled collection of items relating to that period of time. Some of the chief figures such as David Hume and Adam Ferguson worked at our predecessor institution, the Library of the Faculty of Advocates.
We took a fresh look at one of the most concentrated periods of intellectual enquiry the world has ever seen, a time when polymaths peer-reviewed, challenged and encouraged one another's work through the many social networks available to them.
Household names connected with the Scottish Enlightenment such as David Hume and Adam Smith featured in the exhibition, as well as other figures less commonly associated with it such as Robert Burns and James Watt.
'Northern Lights' explored the Scottish Enlightenment through the display of rare books and manuscripts from 18th Century Scotland – including a rare first edition of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica', a first edition of Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' and countless unique manuscripts.
The exhibition was complemented by a range of talks and events that explored the Scottish Enlightenment through a contemporary lens.
It was also the last exhibition for Exhibitions Conservator, Gordon Yeoman, who retired after clocking up 44 years at the Library. Gordon, you will be missed.
Collections in focus
Such seductive poetry: Lord Byron's Don Juan
18 April – 27 July 2019
We began the year's Collections in Focus series with the display of one of the our most coveted treasures — the manuscript of cantos I, II and V of Lord Byron's 'Don Juan'. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poems of the 19th century, it led Sir Walter Scott to make comparisons with Shakespeare. A long poem divided into sections known as cantos, it was unfinished at the time of Byron's death in 1824.
Often lauded as the first-ever 'celebrity', Byron's private life was already attracting scandal and gossip at the time of writing the first cantos of 'Don Juan'. His account of the adventures of Don Juan is famous for its exotic locations, adventure, romance, wit and dazzling language. As was Byron's mischievous wont, he also mocked religions and ridiculed fellow poets and public figures.
For the first time, people had the opportunity to view the working manuscripts of 'Don Juan' on display, which show changes and additions made by the poet, giving an insight into his creative process.
This year's Collections in Focus series also included:
'Back to the future: 1979–1989' — 1 August 2019 to 12 November 2019: Revisiting the 1980s through the Library's collections.
'Allan Ramsay: Writing the Scots Enlightenment' — 18 February to 22 March 2020: Celebrating the life and works of the Scottish poet and playwright.
Who Taught Her That?
6, 7 and 9 March 2020
We were delighted to host a Guided Research Placement for a group of students on the MScR in Collections and Curating Practices at Edinburgh College of Art. The students were tasked with the thorny challenge of how to present our digital collections items in an exhibition space. The result was the wonderfully experimental three-day pop up exhibition and conversation space, which was attended by hundreds of people. 'Who Taught Her That' presented a range of collection items and formats on the topic of advice to women over the last 300 years. With manuscripts rendered digital, and an iPad in a glass case, it was an opportunity to see how people reacted to formats and learn how to present digital and analogue content together in a complementary way.
Reaching out
Library on tour
Our touring displays enable us to continue to reach new destinations and forge new relationships with organisations in the heritage and culture sectors. The displays are drawn from a selection of our previous exhibitions and take the form of portable graphic banners, accompanied by facsimile collection items.
The three-year pilot project aims to raise awareness of the Library's collections around the country. Support from the Library Foundation has aided the project — potential venues have a choice of three portable exhibitions they can host, free of charge. Many choose to augment the displays to suit their locality.
Lifting the Lid: an exploration of Scotland's rich food history
East Renfrewshire Libraries, including Barrhead, Giffnock, Clakston and Newtown Mearns, as well as Eastwood Park Theatre.
Live Argyll Libraries, including Dunoon, Rothesay, Oban, Lochgilphead, Helensburgh and Campbeltown.
North Ayrshire Heritage Centre, Saltcoats.
Museum nan Eilean (Uibhist & Barraigh), Benbecula.
Going to the Pictures: the magic of the movies
Stirling Libraries, including Stirling, Bannockburn, St Ninians, Dunblane, Strathblane and Bridge of Allan.
Orkney Library and Archive.
Bo'ness Library.
You are Here: the beauty and ingenuity of maps
Stirling Central Library.
Irvine Townhouse.
Falkirk Library.
McKechnie Institute, Girvan.
Prescribe Culture
In autumn 2019, we joined with seven other cultural venues across Edinburgh to take part in a pilot project — Prescribe Culture — led by the University of Edinburgh Museums Service. The project was set up to explore the effectiveness of prescribing cultural visits and object handling as an alternative, or supplement, to clinical interventions for students with mild to moderate mental health conditions.
We worked in partnership with the University to develop and deliver six two-hour sessions focusing on items from the Manuscripts collections. Called 'Noting Where You Are', the course explored letters, diaries, sketchbooks, photograph albums, and scrapbooks from the collections, alongside related activities, such as creative writing, doodling, scrapbooking, and photography. Participants were invited to reflect on ways of recording their own thoughts and feelings, inspired by the collections.
After a brief introduction to the programme (and each other), the participants were invited to attend a practical book-making tutorial at our conservation workshop. They were then shown how to make a Japanese-style concertina notebook with decorative marbled paper covers, using materials associated with traditional bookbinding and conservation. Conservators taught participants about the materials, with a few notes (for context) on the importance of preventive and remedial conservation in the cultural heritage sector. The desire to make and the need to look after was also discussed more generally, as was the notion of self-preservation.
The practical nature of the book-making exercise allowed participants to feel at ease straight away, as it gave them a sense of common purpose. As the tutorial progressed, participants engaged with each other more as they shared materials and showed each other their handiwork. A key aim was that each participant would leave feeling accomplished and inspired, with a self-made blank book, a place for creativity and catharsis.
The students created their own support network and continued to meet regularly at the Library. They have expressed an interest in helping to create a new 'Prescribe Culture' course for spring 2021, inspired by the Library's mountaineering and polar collections.
Her Century: Scottish Women on Film
We partnered with Film Hub Scotland to produce a new Moving Image Archive Programme for Scotland: 'Her Century'. The tour visited cinemas and venues all over Scotland, complemented by talks and a commissioned zine.
'Her Century' was curated by our own Dr Emily Munro, who wrote the following:
'The footage preserved in the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive helps to document the role of women in Scottish society throughout the last century. In a touring programme dedicated to women on screen, we showcased some of the contributions made by women to Scotland, spanning the Edwardian era to the Thatcher years.
'The films selected for this programme are as wide-ranging as their subject matter. They include educational and promotional material, amateur footage and propaganda. The women represented here include crofters, campaigners, factory workers, psychologists, mothers, pilots and educators. Seen together, they show great variation in women's roles over time.
'The last century was a time of rapid social change in which 'a woman's place' was contested and redefined. I wanted to steer away from the 'monumental' moments of suffrage and the two world wars, drawing instead on the variety of ways in which ordinary women and girls have been represented on film, as scholars, workers, mothers and friends.
'I'm interested in how women's identities are negotiated and renegotiated through processes of transmission, reflection, recovery and contradiction. For many women, the end of the Second World War meant stepping back into the shadows and embracing the model of housewife and consumer. But the latter part of the 20th century also saw the emergence of new freedoms and possibilities.
'It was important to showcase female filmmakers in the selection. Their place in Scotland's film story is still being discovered and has yet to be written. 'Her Century' includes work by professional documentarians such as Sarah Erulkar, Budge Cooper and Jenny Gilbertson as well as amateur footage from Grace Williamson, which is seldom celebrated. The programme is as much about learning what we might be missing as it is about what we are able to look back on.'
'Her Century' screenings:
13 July 2019 – Tiree Music Festival.
20 July 2019 – Doune the Rabbit Hole, Port of Menteith.
23 August 2019 – Jupiter Rising, Wilkieston.
15 September 2019 – Nairn Book Festival, Inverness.
20 September 2019 – Sea Change Film Festival, Tiree.
13 October 2019 – Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling.
15 October 2019 – Glasgow Film Theatre.
9 November 2019 – Dunoon Film Festival.
21 November 2019 – Hippodrome Cinema, Bo'ness.
6 December 2019 – Cromarty Film Festival.
20 February 2020 – Glasgow Women's Library.
5 March 2020 – The Byre Theatre, St Andrews.
7 March 2020 – The Birks, Aberfeldy.
8 March 2020 – Robert Burns Film Theatre, Dumfries; Oban Phoenix; Eastgate, Peebles; Lyth Arts Centre; Heart of Hawick; Healthy n Happy, Rutherglen.
10 and 11 March 2020 – The Birks, Aberfeldy.
14 March 2020 – Inverclyde Film Festival, Greenock.
hercenturyfilm.com
Funding our work
Income and spending for 2019/2020
Income 2019/20
Donations and legacies: £976,000
Charitable activities: £530,000
Other trading activities: £117,000
Investments: £230,000
Grant in Aid: £15,955,000
Total: £17,808,000
Spending 2019/20
Staff costs: £11,942,000
Depreciation: £3,136,000
Building maintenance: £982,000
Other property costs: £893,000
Collection purchases: £644,000
Other running costs: £2,032,000
Total: £19,629,000
Download the Annual Review (PDF) (1.82 MB; 28 pages)