Central Library, Reference Department

Category

Library Item

Item no

34739

Title

Central Library, Reference Department

Artist / maker

Inglis, Francis Caird

Date

1932

Size

13.6 x 8.5 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Edinburgh's Central Library opened in 1890. It was built using a gift to the city of £50,000 from Andrew Carnegie, the famous Scot's born philanthropist. Architect George Washington Browne won the competition to design the building and he created a French Renaissance style based on chateaus that he had seen during a trip to France. The building originally had four departments: Lending; Reference; Juvenile and Newspaper departments. In the 1930s Ernest Savage, the then librarian, added specialist departments covering Music, Fine Art and the Edinburgh Room. A further specialist department was added in the 1960s with the opening of the Scottish Library. The Central Library continues to evolve today to make better use of the Victorian building and to embrace an electronic presence as well as a physical one.

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