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Research Support Collection

Service update

The Research Support Collection has recently been enhanced by the addition of important material previously kept off-site. This includes a run of British censuses, the Local and Private Acts series of Parliamentary Papers, and the early Journals of the House of Commons / House of Lords. This webpage and signage is being updated to reflect the new arrangement. Please ask staff if you have difficulty locating material.

The Research Support Collection is open whenever the Main Library is open. Consultation tables are available for people using this collection, but for general study space please go to the 5th floor. Food and drink may not be taken into this room.

The Research Support Collection (RSC) reflects the main collection strengths of Edinburgh University Library’s Centre for Research Collections, and supports the study of the rare book, manuscript and archive collections there.

A small selection of heavily-used books is kept in the Reading Room.

Contents and locations

1. Books

The first section of the RSC is books, mainly bibliographies, catalogues, historical works and dictionaries. They have been catalogued in accordance with Library of Congress (LoC) rules.

2. Record Societies

This section includes publications by the following societies, some of which continue to publish new volumes. Shelved in this order:

3. Historical reference works (shelfmark Ref.Hist.Q)

This section contains a variety of historical sources such as calendars of State Papers, listed on the main online catalogue.

4. Early Journals of the House of Commons / House of Lords (LL/Par)

5. Historical Reference Works - large format volumes (Ref.Hist.F / FQ)

6. Early periodicals

This section contains early runs of important scholarly periodicals, classified using the Dewey Decimal system in this order:

7. Microforms

Microforms on open access, including Mic.P and Mic/Fi, a number of newspaper titles and a selection from the microfiche set of the BBC press cuttings archive.

8. Censuses (on static shelving, south wall)

Censuses of Scotland, England and Wales, arranged in Dewey Decimal order (.3)

9. Local & Private Acts (on static shelving, south wall)

This series of Parliamentary Papers (shelfmark LL/Par) covers Local Acts from 1800 until 2009.

10. University Calendars (on static shelving, south wall)

These are the calendars of several important Scottish universities and colleges from the 19th to the late 20th century. A complete set of Edinburgh University Calendar is to be found in the CRC Research Suite.

11. Guardbook Catalogue (on static shelving, north wall)

These volumes were the library’s main catalogue before the online catalogue started in 1985; even now, many books can only be found using the Guardbook or the microfiche version of the Guardbook.

Consultation

Items in the RSC may not be borrowed, but may be consulted anywhere in the Main Library. After use they should be returned to the RSC and placed on the designated area for re-shelving by Centre for Research Collections staff.

This article was published on Nov 14, 2012


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