On Friday, 10 July members of the Scottish geospatial community had the opportunity to visit the National Library of Scotland to view part of their historical map collection, digitization studio and storage facilities.
Founded in 1689, the NLS is now one of the largest and most important research libraries in the world. Its map collection alone contains around two million cartographic items making it the largest collection in Scotland and one of the largest in the world!
During our visit Chris Fleet and the team at NLS gave a fascinating and in-depth tour of the library’s facilities, including their digitisation studio where maps are being transformed for wider online access and their climate-controlled storage and preservation area containing maps from across Scotland, around the world and even the surface of the moon. The tour also included a stop in the map reading room to view selected items that reveal how Scottish landscapes and map styles changed over time.
A big thank you to the staff at NLS for a very fascinating and memorable visit.
AGI Member can login to our Member Resources to view the event photos