As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of Scotland has reading rooms where visitors can access the collections.

[3] There are over 24 million items held at the Library in various formats including books, annotated manuscripts and first-drafts, postcards, photographs, and newspapers.

The Library's main public building is in Edinburgh city centre on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter.

– for a new library building to be constructed on George IV Bridge, replacing the Victorian-period Sheriff Court, which moved to the Royal Mile.

The coat of arms above the entrance was sculpted by Scott Sutherland and the roundels above the muses on the front facade by Elizabeth Dempster.

The Causewayside Building opened in the south-side of Edinburgh in two phases, in 1989 and in 1995, at a total cost of almost £50 million, providing additional working space and storage facilities.

[10] The last letter written by Mary Queen of Scots made a rare public appearance to mark the opening of a new library visitor centre in September 2009.

On 16 May 2012 the National Library of Scotland Act 2012 (asp 3) was passed by the Scottish Parliament, and received royal assent on 21 June 2012.

The archive provides information about the Edinburgh-based firm of map engravers, printers, and publishers, John Bartholomew and Son Ltd.

[27][28] The Library holds roughly 375 military maps and plans that were prepared by the Board of Ordnance in the 18th century for government troops during the Jacobite period.

The National Library of Scotland holds materials related to (primarily) Scottish theatre, though many of the individual notable items are found across different collections.

The general public are able (and encouraged) to view these items at the Special Collections Reading Room in the library's main building, a space where people can consult rare books, manuscripts, and music.

The stage set for the play, designed and painted by Scottish artist John Byrne, was made in 1973 and is in the form of a giant-sized pop-up book.

It consists of 5 different scenes painted by Byrne, including: a Highland landscape, a croft house, a poppy-covered war memorial, and a Native American Tipi.

The library holds various items of early modern and restoration English drama, mainly within the Bute Collection.

Notable items that can be found here include early editions of William Shakespeare's plays, namely A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and Othello.

Although Scotland's first public theatre did not open until 1736, plays were performed at alternative venues like schools, courts, and local festivals.

[32] The collections at the National Library of Scotland include early editions several Scottish plays, printed before 1736, that would have been performed like this.

As well as this, the NLS has books from the lawyer and author Sir Theodore Martin, which mainly relate to his wife, actress Helena Faucit.

The Weir Collection is one of the biggest resources at the National Library of Scotland for 19th century materials related to the theatre.

One of the earliest playbills in the collection advertises a performance of Rob Roy on 11 March 1829 with Charles Mackay playing Bailie Nicol Jarvie.

Particularly attractive are the examples of the pictorial posters of the later part of the 19th century, featuring scenes from plays or portraits of the leading actors and actresses.

The Alps and the Himalayas receive the most coverage throughout the collections, and the discovery and exploration of the Arctic and Antarctica are heavily featured also.

There are over 20,000 items within the collection, including written works related to the history of Alpine climbing, books on Arctic exploration, mountaineering journals, over 250 press cuttings, postcards, manuscripts, and photographs.

Much of the material within the collection is personal; there are Brown's climbing diary notebooks, papers related to his time as an editor of the Alpine Journal, correspondence, and his book The First Ascent of Mont Blanc (1957).

The first National Library of Scotland Graham Brown Research Fellow was Alex Boyd FRSA, an artist, photographer, and curator.

The collection includes not only technical reports of scientific expeditions, and the results of polar research, but also popular accounts of travel and exploration, whale-fishing and folklore.