The National Library of Scotland’s printed and digital modern collections number at least 14 million items, and account for around 93% of its published collections. They include all types of material, such as newspapers and journals, pamphlets and books, leaflets and programmes, annual reports and society transactions. They come in all formats, including websites and e-publications. Most importantly of all, they cover every subject you can possibly imagine. If there is something you are interested in, then the National Library will have material.

As part of this the Library collects Scottish publications as comprehensively as possible, and as a result its collections include material produced in, or about all parts of Scotland and its communities, and on every possible subject.

The breadth of the published collections is largely to do with the legal deposit privilege, which dates back to 1710. This allows the Library to request a free copy of everything published in the UK and Ireland, which is then retained in perpetuity. The joy of this is that this includes everything – nothing is too ephemeral, slight, or local. Publications are simply collected and are made available for use.

In addition to physical collections, which have to be consulted onsite, the Library subscribes to many online databases, most of which can be accessed remotely free of charge (see https://auth.nls.uk/eresources). It has also digitised selected material in its collections and these can be found on the Library’s website at https://digital.nls.uk/gallery.