Reference Library

The National Records of Scotland’s Library collections are made available for reference in the search rooms as an aid to research in the records.

Main collection

The main collection is held in General Register House. It covers the following subjects:

• Archives and conservation
• Bibliography
• Biography
• Dictionaries
• Directories
• Ecclesiastical history
• Economic, social and cultural history
• Family and clan histories
• Government and administration
• Heraldry
• Law
• Military history
• Scottish history
• Scottish Record Office and National Archives of Scotland publications
• Topography
• Transport

Some reference books are held on open shelf in the Historical Search Room, Alcove, Index Room and Catalogue Room on the first floor of General Register House but most books and journals are available on request.

You can also access the following digital resources :

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Histpop - the online historical population reports website (for access to annual reports of the Registrars General up to 1919 and the 1801 to 1931 census reports)
• Innes Review
• Journal of Scottish Historical Studies
• Scottish Historical Review

ScotlandsPeople Centre Reference Library

This small Library collection is for family history researchers with seats in the ScotlandsPeople Centre. It includes:

• Monumental Inscriptions for burial grounds throughout Scotland as well as a few in England, Ireland, India and Sri Lanka of Scottish interest - an index of places is provided for quick reference;

• Transcriptions of pre-1841 census and population records;

• Transcriptions of pre-1855 birth, death and marriage registers (including private registers and Congregational, Scottish Episcopal, Free Church, Methodist, Quaker and Roman Catholic records), lair records, newspaper birth, death and marriage notices;

• Dictionaries of emigrants, university and school rolls, military lists and guides to occupations and names;

• Language and medical dictionaries;

• Gazetteers, directories (including Post Office directories for Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and the statistical accounts of Scotland.

Library Catalogue

You can search the Library catalogue in the Historical Search Room and in the ScotlandsPeople Centre.

Please note that Library books are provided for reference as an aid to your research in the records.  They must not be removed from the search rooms. You may take notes but we ask you not to copy or photograph pages.