Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal June 2007 Volume 5(3)

Special collections

Focus on: Rare Books in Scotland (RBiS)

Dedicated to landmarks in printing

Scotland is blessed with an impressive range of printed special collections held in its various university, public, private and special interest libraries, as well as the collections in the National Library.

These collections contain not just the printed heritage of Scotland but also examples of the major landmarks in world printing from the 15th century onwards.

For some years it was recognised that library staff working with these collections would benefit from the opportunity to meet regularly to share skills and to provide mutual support. A group dedicated to rare books was also seen as a means of building a co-operative infrastructure to meet the specific needs of the distributed national collection of printed special collections.

The first informal steps towards creating such a group were taken in September 2003 and March 2004 at meetings of Scottish rare book librarians held in NLS and Glasgow University.
Later in 2004 Rare Books in Scotland (RBiS) became an affiliated group of SCURL. In its current guise RBiS is a forum open to members of staff in Scottish libraries and other organisations (of all sizes and in all sectors) who have responsibility for collections of ‘rare books’ in the broadest sense. Administrative support is provided by NLS, but the strength of RBiS lies in the number and range of member organisations (at the time of writing there are over 30 members and the list is growing) and the practical focus of its activities.

The forum holds business meetings twice yearly at different members’ institutions throughout Scotland and runs workshops at regular intervals. The workshops are free to members and have been a great success, covering such areas as provenance, preservation, bindings, and cataloguing.
As a national forum RBiS takes a particular interest in issues such as increasing provision for training in rare book librarianship within Scotland, collaborative collection development and improving access to collections through cataloguing projects.

The growth in RBiS membership and the interest shown in the work of the forum are encouraging signs for the future of printed special collections within Scotland.

New members to the group will be made very welcome – please contact Graham Hogg, National Library of Scotland for more information e: g.hogg@nls.uk.

Information Scotland Vol. 5(3) June 2007

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