third edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1797.
'We will make it easier to access our collections. By 2025 — the centenary of the Library's foundation — we will complete a full listing of the Library's holdings and have a third in digital format.' [2015-2020 strategy]
Almost 19 per cent of the National Library of Scotland's vast collections are now available in digital format, with the number growing every day.
One of these fascinating collections is the early editions of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica'. The first edition was born in Edinburgh in 1768 and came to be regarded as a key work of the Scottish Enlightenment.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the publication, and following a successful fundraising appeal, we have digitised the first 10 editions of 'Britannica', totalling almost 190,000 pages and entries on everything from midwifery to farriery to necromancy.
Creative industries on film
The William Grant Foundation is one of the funders who has supported the project to save a unique film archive documenting Scotland's creative industry.
Scottish Ballet's film archive is stored in fragile formats which were at risk of being unrecoverable within five years, but the donation has helped fund a video preservation technician post, the purchase of digitisation equipment and digital storage.
The work will take place at the Moving Image Archive in Glasgow and will ensure that the footage can be viewed and enjoyed far into the future.