A Journey from Legal to National Library of Scotland Through the Prism of its Librarians

Abstract

National libraries generally arise from legislative fiat. Their creation is either driven from a need to encapsulate and protect a burgeoning nationalism and culture or to reflect the power and might of an already established state, people, or monarchy. Monarchies, aristocrats, or wealthy individuals usually provide the initial physical core. State governmental bodies usually take over the administrative and budgetary responsibility over time as collections grow too large, the general influence of monarchies and aristocrats diminish, or wealthy benefactors die. The National Library of Scotland, however, arrived at its final incarnation through a unique origin – the Advocates Library. The Advocates Library was a law library founded, funded, and operated by a discrete body within the larger Scottish legal community. Within this discrete body was an even more discrete management at the tiller – the Keepers of the Library. A body of men ranging in skills, origins, conflicts, celebrity, policies, and gravitas – and all had some effect on the evolution of the Advocates Library. The library and its librarians played an important and unique part in the national Scottish culture, politics, society, and history, and especially in maintaining and disseminating Scottish law within a larger Anglo dominated political entity. The expansion of Scottish law and courts, legal publications, national politics and the importance and role of the Advocates Library and its librarians are all intertwined. What follows is the tale of the Advocates Library through the prism of its Keepers (aka Librarians) up to the point of the creation of the National Library.

Keywords: National Library of Scotland, history, legal history, Scotland, law libraries, Advocate's Library,