Brief History of the Library

Edinburgh University’s Library preceded its university by 3 years, when it came into being thanks to the donation of Clement Littil in 1580. The library had its own building in 1617, but was moved to another building in the 1640s. By that time, the collection had grown, in particular thanks to William Drummond of Hawthornden’s donation in 1624. A catalogue of this donation was printed in 1627, and we still have several copies of it in the rare books collection. A press catalogue was made in 1636 by Robert Lumsden, and a copy of said catalogue was ordered by the Town Council (which controlled the University until 1858). These two catalogues survive in the collection. In 1667, William Henderson became the librarian, and we owe him a very detailed and beautifully laid out donations book. In 1677, the collection expanded thanks to another bequest, that of the Revd James Nairn. A printed catalogue of the books he donated was made in 1678, and we still possess several copies of it.

In 1684, Henderson’s son Robert became librarian in his turn. Through his numerous notes, we get a sense of how the library was being run and also what did not work so well in its management. In 1710, the Copyright Act entitled the four Scottish universities to get a copy of every book registered at the Stationers’ hall and this arrangement lasted until 1837. From the second quarter of the 18^th century, departmental libraries started to spring up at the university, an example being the Natural History departmental library. It appears that the library collection was moved back into the 1617 building, which had been enlarged, in the 1750s. However, this event is not recorded in the college minutes, although talk of a new building is recorded. During the same decade, the under-librarian Duke Gordon created a four-volume author catalogue which was used up to the early 19^th century.

In 1762, William Robertson became Principal of the university, and we get a sense of some of the administrative tasks a principal had to take on when we look at the student registers, for instance, as his signature is omnipresent. A year after Robertson’s appointment, the library’s collection welcomed more books, this time from the College of Surgeons which disposed of all its titles. During the rest of the 18^th century and in the 19^th, several honorary librarians succeeded one another, some of them being James Robertson (1763-1785), Andrew Dalzel (1785-1806), and George Dunbar (1806-1809). The collection continued to expand, was moved to the Playfair library in 1827 and kept expanding until the collection came to use every bit of space available in the university buildings. Eventually, the collection was moved to the George Square area in 1967 in the current Main Library building.