Hansard

I thank members of the Education and Culture Committee for their scrutiny of the National Library of Scotland Bill. Throughout the process, members have provided constructive comments on the bill. I thank the convener, the clerks to the committee and, of course, the Scottish Government’s ever-responsive bill team for all their hard work. I also recognise the input of the external stakeholders who have informed our thinking and have helped us to shape the bill.

My particular thanks must go to the National Library of Scotland for its support and for helping my officials and me to understand more fully the true nature of its work and what it hopes to achieve as a result of the reforms.

I also value the contributions of all those who took the time to share their views and knowledge during the consultation period, including the Faculty of Advocates, to whom I will return later in my speech, and the Scottish Library and Information Council. I have listened to a variety of views and believe that the bill that we have in front of us is the product of those reflections.

I am confident that all those who have worked on the bill will agree when I say that collaboration across party lines, and with stakeholders, has been central to the successful development of the bill and the general consensus on it, despite the previous debate.

Throughout the bill process there has been strong agreement across the Parliament that the current National Library of Scotland Act 1925, which governs the National Library of Scotland, is out of date and out of step with its vision, both now and for the future. The bill will therefore support the development of the National Library by modernising the governance arrangements for the 21st century.

What will that mean in practice for the National Library and its users? First, the entire board of the library will be made up, for the first time, from those who have chosen to be appointed. Board membership will no longer be determined by the office that someone holds. Indefinite terms of appointment will also come to an end. Instead, the National Library will benefit from recruiting members with the skills and experience expressly required by an ambitious organisation. There will be a regular refresh of board membership and an opportunity to review the skill set required each time appointments are made.

The National Library and the general public will benefit from the clear functions that are set out for the first time in the library’s history. The National Library will have a specific objective of ensuring that the collections are accessible to the public. One of the ways in which the National Library will continue to make its collections accessible to all is through its exhibition programme.

The bill will safeguard the collections by placing a statutory duty on the National Library to maintain and develop the collections for generations to come. It also recognises that the National Library has a duty to ensure that researchers, students and learners continue to have access to the collections. The National Library’s collections will need to be relevant to enable the research community to continue to produce high-quality work to maintain Scotland’s place on the academic map.

To support the National Library’s function of conserving and preserving its collections in a physical sense, I announced earlier this week that the Scottish Government has committed more than £2 million towards the transformation of the library’s Causewayside building in Edinburgh. That will secure the conservation of the collections for years to come by rectifying long-term problems with the external fabric of the building. An additional advantage is that the transformation project will significantly reduce energy consumption.

I should at this point mention the library’s strong record in carbon management. As one of 47 Scottish organisations selected in 2009 to take part in an ambitious programme with the Carbon Trust to realise vast carbon and cost savings, the library committed itself to a target of reducing CO2 by 30 per cent by 2014-15. The library’s carbon management plan involves potential financial savings of around £620,000 over the course of the project and £160,000 annual recurring savings thereafter. Aiming for a 5 per cent CO2 reduction in 2010, the NLS exceeded that first target as it achieved 15 per cent reductions through the involvement and creativity of staff, contractors and unions. Progress has been maintained, and a cumulative 28 per cent reduction in CO2 was achieved by the end of 2011-12. Thanks to investment in new plant, with support from the Scottish Government, the library is likely to exceed its CO2 reduction target.

I turn to the content of the National Library’s collections. One of the library’s great strengths is the John Murray Publishers archive, to which I referred earlier. The library recently received the final set of papers to complete the archive, which will be permanently housed in the library. The archive provides a remarkable insight into British life over three centuries. The final items that were received include unpublished material from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Field Bazaar”, which appeared in an unnamed charity magazine in 1896 and has never been published since.

During the bill’s parliamentary passage, members have heard about the National Library’s involvement in great advances in digitisation and the use of modern technology. That is why the bill was drafted with future developments in mind. The bill is as flexible and future proofed as possible, to allow the National Library to respond to technological advances.

The bill has given the Parliament and the National Library the opportunity to raise awareness of how the library already champions cutting-edge technology to enable greater access to its collections, not only for those of us who are in Scotland but for the world, through the wide and ever-expanding availability of items that are displayed online.

A particularly imaginative use of new technology is the travel application called “Great Escapes: Moray”, which the library helped to develop earlier this year. The library collaborated on that with schools in Elgin and Lossiemouth, with community volunteers and with local authority libraries, and it had the assistance of a hotel chain. The app highlights 20 points of interest in Moray that have natural, industrial and cultural heritage. The library provided a range of archive films, images, maps and documents that the young people in Moray helped to bring to life through developing the app.

I will reflect briefly on the amendments to the bill, including those that we discussed a few moments ago. The bill and the National Library will be strengthened by the amendment to increase the minimum number of board members from six to eight, as was argued for at stage 1, and by the transitional arrangements that will be put in place for a new chair. The procedure for implementing the bill will allow a core group of current board members to be carried forward into the reconstituted board—members across the parties made a point about that at stage 1. The bill process has allowed us to think through and strengthen the mechanisms for giving the library continuity in the transition to its new modernised governance arrangements.

I do not want to prolong the debate that we had about the ministerial power of direction in relation to Liam McArthur’s amendments, but I repeat my general view that the debate has been useful. In the end, we have struck the right balance between the library’s curatorial independence, in which I passionately believe, and its accountability as a heavily subsidised public body.

I will touch on the amendments that were made in response to suggestions from the Faculty of Advocates. The relationship between the National Library and the faculty was discussed briefly this afternoon and more extensively in committee. That relationship is historical and continuing and it prospers to this day, so recognising it appropriately in the bill was important.

The amendments to sections 5 and 6 replicate and modernise requirements on both parties that were set out when the relationship was first enshrined in the National Library of Scotland Act 1925 in relation to the organisation of and access to the collections. The bill as amended will ensure that there is no misunderstanding about what is meant by the faculty’s collections, which are the books that are contained in the faculty’s law library. The joint arrangements that section 6 provides allow the faculty and the National Library to agree the practicalities of their operational relationship in particular areas. That approach is consistent with the memoranda of understanding that both parties signed in December 2011.

It is right that the bill should set the overall principles for an effective continuing relationship between the faculty and the National Library. I make it clear that I am not imposing inflexible statutory requirements on either body. It is for the faculty and the National Library to agree and update arrangements as technology and library users’ requirements evolve. I am grateful to the National Library and the faculty for their careful consideration of those aspects of the bill and I confirm that they are content with the amended bill.

We have an opportunity today to pass legislation that will modernise the National Library’s governance and functions. Together, we have crafted a well considered bill that meets the library’s needs and meets what Scotland expects of its National Library today and in the future. I invite the Parliament to agree to pass the National Library of Scotland Bill.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that the National Library of Scotland Bill be passed.