Hansard

I endorse Fiona McLeod’s concluding comments.

We have finally managed to get Marco Biagi off the NLS board in order that he can spend more time with his family and his constituents.

I thank the National Library of Scotland, the witnesses, committee colleagues, the clerks and particularly the convener of the Education and Culture Committee, who was almost in danger of losing his much-famed calmness when he was told that he had only three minutes in which to deliver his speech.

I am indebted to Clare Adamson for furnishing me with a comment from Carnegie in the stage 1 debate. Carnegie said that

“the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise”,

which included free libraries. Clare Adamson talked about spending a lot of time in the library in Motherwell during her childhood. I did much the same in the Carnegie library in Kirkwall. Sometimes that was to avail myself of the books and research facilities there, but it was often to escape from the howling winds and driving rain. I continue to do that regularly in the new library building.

As many have said, the bill is welcome; perhaps it is overdue. It certainly succeeds in bringing the governance structures for the National Library into the 21st century, and it begins to address the changing demands that we have placed on that library while still enshrining the strengths that we all very much admire.

As other members have indicated, there were a few areas of concern during the passage of the bill. The cabinet secretary responded constructively to the points that were raised about the size of the board and effecting as smooth a transition as possible to the new arrangement, but concerns remained to the end about the powers of direction. I will not try to reopen the arguments, but on the points that our ferocious librarian made, if we look at the NLS’s other functions, ministers would want to be assured that the board was “encouraging education and research” and

“promoting understanding and enjoyment of the collections”.

Ministers would want to be assured that all those functions are being delivered, but they are not seeking powers of direction over them. The cabinet secretary has made clear her position on that. Overall, she has adopted a very constructive approach in meeting the concerns that have been expressed, and I think that the concerns that have been expressed by other members today and previously are now a matter of record.

I acknowledge that the National Library of Scotland is a national treasure. The demands that we have placed on it have changed over the years, and we can undoubtedly expect them to change further in ways that we cannot predict at this stage. I hope that the bill will help to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of an ever-growing number of people.

In conclusion, I draw members’ attention to the Orkney library and archive. Following its success in the golden twits for its contribution to social media, it is up for the library of the year award later this month. I hope that members wish it well in that regard.