Using the Library

Consult the Library’s catalogue here.

Advocates may access most of the Library's stock at the Advocates Library, Parliament House. The public may access most of the Advocates Library stock through the National Library of Scotland, which adjoins the Advocates Library. While Advocates have priority on the use of Advocates Library items, every effort is made to ensure that items reach the National Library of Scotland as quickly as possible. The relationship between the Faculty of Advocates and the National Library of Scotland is expressed in two memoranda of agreement, one on general service and the other on ownership.

Non-members wishing to consult Advocates Library items should, in the first instance, contact the National Library of Scotland.  The catalogue of the Advocates Library provides details of the vast majority of the library’s holdings and will assist you in identifying the items you wish to consult at the National Library.

Advocates Library staff are also responsible for the books at Sir Walter Scott's home at Abbotsford, which belong to the Faculty of Advocates Abbotsford Collection Trust. Although the Abbotsford Library is mainly a conservation library, access for researchers to specific items is encouraged, with consultation facilities provided at the National Library of Scotland. An Access Protocol is used to guide decisions on access to the Abbotsford collection. Persons wishing to consult Abbotsford library items should follow the Access Protocol and submit an application for access to specific items to the Head of the Library, Iain Young, by e-mail.

Find out more about Abbotsford here.