Did you hear our National Librarian Amina Shah on BBC Radio 6 Music this morning? Amina spoke with Nick Grimshaw about a Very Specific Playlist which ties in with our exhibition, ‘Rain’, on now at our George IV Bridge building in Edinburgh.

What are the rules of a library? 📜 Acclaimed artist Peter Liversidge spent eight months researching our collections, speaking to staff, and studying library rules from around the world to create 'The Rules of the Library' – a large-scale artwork now on display in our General Reading Room.

You can see Orkney and Shetland on the pillar above the stairs! The original map we used had them in boxes a fair bit south of where the islands actually are, so we decided to move them up to the pillar above the stairs, which is a slightly more accurate location and still visible to passers-by.

A warm welcome to Claire White, our new Shetland Scots Scriever! 🥳🎻 Claire is a songwriter and traditional fiddle player from Shetland, with a deep passion for the Shaetlan language.

Kelvin Hall has been many things over the last hundred years: an exhibition space, a circus venue, a transport museum, and – since 2016 – home to our moving image and sound collections.

His private library of polar books was given to the Library in 1959 and forms the heart of our polar collections. Wordie's bookplate appears in most of the volumes in his collection. It reads 'He yt tholis overcomis' - he who endures, overcomes.

Geologist on Shackleton's 'Endurance'. Survivor of ten months trapped in ice. Avid book collector ⛵❄️📚 Although best known for being the geologist on Shackleton's ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Sir James Mann Wordie was an academic, an avid book collector, and a keen mountaineer.

Interested? Find out more and apply on our website > www.nls.uk/about-us/job...

Director of Collections Management – £77,843, full-time, permanent Lead the teams responsible for cataloguing, conservation, preservation, acquisitions, legal deposit, and collections logistics. 📅 Closes: 02/08/2026

Head of Public Programmes – £53,853, full-time, permanent Lead the development and delivery of our public engagement programme – covering exhibitions, events, outreach, and learning. 📅 Closes: 26/07/2026

Outwith Producer – £48,643 (£29,185 pro rata), part-time (21 hours), temporary contract (23 months) Develop and manage our partnership-led national outreach and engagement programme. 📅 Closes: 23/07/2026

Head of Access – £53,853, full-time, permanent Lead the development and delivery of the services and spaces that shape how people access our collections. 📅 Closes: 19/07/2026

We're hiring! We're looking for passionate, skilled people to help us preserve and share Scotland's cultural heritage. #Jobs #LibraryJobs #HeritageCareers #ScottishCulture #EdinburghJobs

Then we had to get our reading in! We though we'd start with Sam Usher's children's book 'Rain'! What else should we get up to? 🤔

We also took our new friend on a trip to the Nau(tical) shelfmark - lots of books about the sea 🌊

First, we had to introduce octopus to Eeyore and Sadness, who are a part of the family storytelling section of the 'Rain' exhibition!

Missing octopus alert! ⚠️ Someone seems to have left their cuddly friend in our 'Rain' exhibition. Recognise them? Let us know! While we wait for octopus to be picked up, we thought we could take little octopus on an adventure... 🐙

The origin story of Penguin Books has become legend, but what really happened, and how does Agatha Christie fit into it? 🔎 As the legend goes, it all began in the autumn of 1934. Publisher Allen Lane was on a train when he came up with the concept of what would become Penguin Books.

Dreich, smirr, smugrach, and everything in between 🌧️ From Burns's 'Tam O'Shanter' to James Hutton's 'Theory of Rain', from artwork by Raasay Primary School to a documentary from 1975, our curator Sarah Mackay explores nine objects that capture how rain has soaked into the nation's imagination.

John Francis Campbell of Islay travelled across the Highlands and Islands, recording Gaelic stories, songs, and traditions at a time when they risked being lost. Born on Islay in 1821, he grew up speaking Gaelic with his family's piper.

Scotland's national film archive holds 26,000 films – from Clyde shipyards to St Andrews parades. But half are on decaying formats, and time is running out. This year's Annual Appeal is raising funds to digitise and restore them, before they're lost > auth.nls.uk/support-us/w...

Come see Hutton's work in person at our new exhibition, 'Rain', open now 🌧️ #RainAtNLS #Scotland #Edinburgh

His 'Theory of Rain' explored the relationship between air temperature and humidity, helping us understand why clouds form and what causes them to produce rain. Today, scientists at The James Hutton Institute continue his work, tracking rainfall patterns and studying how our climate is changing.

250 years ago, one of Scotland's foremost scientists took a close interest in what is arguably our most famous feature: rain ☔ In 1784, the father of modern geology, James Hutton, sketched out the key principles for the "condensation of aqueous vapour contained in the air."

Looking for a ticket to Scotland v Brazil? 🎟️⚽ Here's a ticket to our last World Cup match against them in '98, which we keep safe at the National Library in Edinburgh.

Did you know that Edinburgh is one of the driest cities in the UK? 🌧️ This 1967 map from our collection shows the variations in rainfall across Scotland, with the west coast getting noticeably more than the east. Come see it in person at our new exhibition, 'Rain', open now! #RainAtNLS

🌧️ Rain drops today! From James Hutton's Theory of Rain to Mackintosh coats, Tam O'Shanter to Daemonologie – explore Scotland's obsession with wet weather in our new exhibition, 'Rain'. 📅 Until 30 April 2027 📌 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh 🎟️ Free entry

It's raining men(tions) ️☔👯‍♂️ We're excited that 'Rain' has been in the headlines this week - and not just because of the weather! 🌧️ You might have heard Alison Stevenson, our Head of Collections, Access, and Research, chatting about our new exhibition 'Rain' on BBC Radio 4's Front Row last night...

What gets saved from the web – and what disappears? Join us and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh to learn how to hack, preserve, and use digital archives 🖥️ Learn how to: 🔎 See underlying web structures and metadata 🔖 Reshape how web pages display 🗺️ Navigate digital collections

📣 One week left to apply! We are seeking applications for our Scots Scriever residency - and this year, the focus is on Shetland. This is a unique opportunity for a writer to create original work in Shaetlan while championing the language across communities.