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Meeting of the Parliament 16 May 2012

16 May 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

National Library of Scotland Bill

Hyslop, Fiona SNP Linlithgow Watch on SPTV

I welcome the tone of the debate and the genuine respect that members across the chamber have expressed for the work of the National Library of Scotland.

In relation to Annabel Goldie’s legal point, section 1(1) modernises and updates the legal name of the governing body. The members of the NLS board can continue to call themselves trustees if they so wish.

The debates on the bill have focused on the National Library’s role as a national centre of research and as a preserver and curator of one of Scotland’s major national collections. That role is distinct from the particular functions of public lending libraries that local authorities fulfil but, as Patricia Ferguson said, the bill gives the National Library a new function of actively promoting collaboration and the sharing of good practice between such services.

I appreciate the comments that members such as Neil Findlay have made on the importance of local authority public library services and the challenges that they face. However, the situation in Scotland is quite different from that in England—in Scotland, there have been fewer than a handful of closures over the past two years.

The recently published Carnegie Trust report on public library services, which Clare Adamson mentioned, raises questions that are being considered by local authorities across Scotland, as the statutory providers of library services, and by library professionals. It is appropriate to acknowledge that the City of Edinburgh Council’s library and information service won the library of the year accolade at Monday’s bookseller industry awards in London. I remain committed to continuing to help to facilitate library improvements by maintaining the provision of annual funding of £0.5 million through the Scottish Library and Information Council.

At earlier points in the bill’s progress, members have raised points about the regime for electronic legal deposit. I agree that, nearly 10 years after the passing of the enabling legislation in Westminster, progress with finalising the regulations must continue as speedily as possible. Draft regulations were published by the UK Government in February this year, and public consultation on them is due to close at the end of this week. I understand that further work still needs to be done to find the right balance between the need, in our highly digital age, to preserve the national record and the legitimate rights of publishers, particularly as regards microbusinesses.

I hope that those issues can be resolved productively and speedily, as all members will be anxious to ensure that the regulations are in place to enable Scotland to preserve a record of significant events such as the Commonwealth games.

Members have commented this afternoon on the technological advances in libraries and collections that have occurred or are still to come. It is interesting to reflect that, even 10 years ago, the concept of the National Library taking on a film archive would have been novel. However, the National Library now keeps the Scottish screen archive and, as I announced at stage 1, plans to move it into the redeveloped Kelvin hall in Glasgow, a proposal that the Scottish Government has supported with a £250,000 grant.

Looking ahead to the future unknowns is, of course, more difficult. One seemingly unlikely clue may be found in the recent announcement that the late Freddie Mercury is due to make a return to stage as a hologram in a special 10th anniversary performance of Queen’s popular hit show, “We Will Rock You”. Who knows—data storage by hologram may be one of the future formats that any comprehensive collection such as our National Library will need to adapt to in the coming years.