The National Library of Scotland will shortly open a major new exhibition on the Scottish Enlightenment. Robert Betteridge, Rare Books Curator (Eighteenth-Century Printed Collections), considers how best to capture the essence of this remarkable era.

Alison Metcalfe is the Manuscripts Curator of Missionary and Military Archives at the National Library of Scotland. In this piece, she writes about the final letter sent by Jane Haining from Auschwitz in 1944. Haining was matron at the Scottish Jewish Mission School in Budapest and was arrested by the...

Dr Anette Hagan is the Rare Books Curator (Early Printed Collections to 1700) at the National Library of Scotland (NLS). In this piece, in celebration of International Women's Day, she explores the work of Elizabeth Melville, the first Scottish woman to see her work in print.

  Graeme Hawley is the Head of General Collections at the National Library of Scotland (NLS). In this piece, the first of a regular series from NLS curators, he reflects on a chance encounter with a book in the collection. The occupational hazard in my work is curiosity. You train yourself after...