This is the sixth in the series of guest posts written by one of SUNCAT’s Contributing Libraries. This month, Kerry Eldon, Librarian at the Scottish National Gallery, which is down the road from the SUNCAT team in Edinburgh, writes about the library and its collections.

———————————————–

The Scottish National Gallery, previously known as National Gallery of Scotland, opened in 1859 and is the oldest of the three institutions of the National Galleries of Scotland. Our library collection was initially used by members of the Royal Scottish Academy and has continued to grow to support the research of the staff of the National Galleries of Scotland. The library, located in the Curatorial Department, is open by appointment to anyone interested in researching our collection.

The main information desk at the Scottish National Gallery, which all visitors initially report to when they are coming to the library. Scottish National Gallery, 2014.

Our library collection reflects the Scottish National Gallery’s art collection, which focusses on Western Art roughly between 1300 and 1900. Holdings comprise of 45,000 items including journal issues, sales, exhibition, public and private collection catalogues. There are over 60 individual print journal titles, including over 30 current journal titles. Many items in our library cannot be found elsewhere in Edinburgh. Library acquisitions are received either by purchase, gift or donation and we receive publications which include our images. The Scottish National Gallery has a publication exchange agreement with a number of other gallery libraries worldwide. In addition to the journal and book collections, accession files for each work in the permanent art collection are frequently used by visitors. These contain a wealth of published and unpublished information including correspondence, provenance research notes and articles.
The National Galleries of Scotland book catalogue has been recently made available on our website and can be searched here. Most of our book collection is included in this and new records are added daily.

Interior of the Scottish National Gallery. Scottish National Gallery, 2014.

The normal opening hours of the Scottish National Gallery Library are Monday-Friday mornings between 10am and 12.30pm and afternoons between 2pm and 4.30pm. Please contact the librarian in advance if you wish to make an appointment to visit the library by emailing nglibrary@nationalgalleries.org or phoning 0131 624 6501.

———————————————-

SUNCAT would like to thank Kerry for writing this post. If you would like to write a post on your SUNCAT Contributing Library and its serials collections please let us know.