Items that you consult in our reading room are precious, and need to be treated with care.
Before you enter a reading room:
You must leave the following items in a locker:
- Outdoor coats and jackets
- Wet outer garments and umbrellas
- Bags larger than 29cm x 21cm (A4)
- Any items of food or drink
- Any items which might damage our material, for example, pens, glue, correction fluid, scissors or other sharp implements, staplers, etc.
Lockers at our George IV building (General and Special Collections Reading Rooms) take a £1 coin. Staff at the café till will give you change if you need it. Lockers at our Causewayside building (Maps Reading Room), have a key and don't require money.
In the reading room:
- You can only use pencil to write with, for the protection of collection items
- You can buy pencils in the Library 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
- You should ensure that your hands are clean before handling Library materials
- Wherever practicable, you should read material on the book 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.