McDonald Road Library is one of 28 freely-accessible

public libraries ''Public Libraries'' is the official publication of the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It is devoted exclusively to public libraries. The print edition is published six times a year and i ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The library opened in 1904 as the East Branch of the city's library service.Armstrong & White, p.8 It is located on the corner of McDonald Road and

Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the east end of the city centre to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the str ...

, and is a

category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. At its opening the library held a stock of 11,498 volumes and recorded in excess of 190,000 issues (loans) per annum during its early years. Books were not directly accessible by the public for browsing until after 1922 when Edinburgh's library service switched to an "open access" approach to their collections. In the year the library opened the then-five public libraries serving the city issued 962,724 loans from stock.Edinburgh Public Libraries 1890–1950, p.2 The building is one of the original five branch libraries, constructed and opened after Central Library, under the stewardship of Hew Morrison who served as Principal

Librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

between 1887 and 1922.Armstrong & White, p.7 The fourth branch library constructed, McDonald Road was built with help from funding provided by the trustees of a bequest from publisher Thomas Nelson to provide "shelter halls" for the working men of the city.Edinburgh Public Libraries 1890–1950, p.117 By 1950, the stock of volumes held in the library had more than tripled: 33,963 in the main collection and 6,211 in the junior reading room. Issues from the stock were 285,559 and 57,557 respectively.Edinburgh Public Libraries 1890–1950, p.21 With the city much expanded, being served by Central Library, thirteen branch libraries, other suburban and deposited libraries, mobile and hospital services, plus books for the blind, the city's community was provided with access to over 650,000 volumes and the combined issues from the service totalled over four million lendings. As with all public libraries in Edinburgh, adult collections are organised using the

Library of Congress Classification The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a system of library classification developed by the Library of Congress in the United States, which can be used for shelving books in a library. LCC is mainly used by large research and academic li ...

system. Since

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

dropped the system during a 1974 local government reorganisation, Edinburgh is the only municipality in the United Kingdom continuing to use it. Children's books are organised under the more-widespread

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (pronounced ) colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. ...

scheme.Edinburgh Public Libraries 1890–1950, p.4 McDonald Road branch is open to the public six days a week; with disabled access. It is on nine bus routes, offers free Wi-Fi, public computer access, a business hub, "Bookbug" sessions for pre-school children, five book/reading groups, a children's craft drop-in and some local councillors' surgeries.

Notes

References

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External links

City of Edinburgh Council page for the libraryMcDonald Road Library - Facebook page
* {{Authority control Libraries in Edinburgh Category B listed buildings in Edinburgh Listed library buildings in Scotland Library buildings completed in 1904 Libraries established in 1904 1904 establishments in Scotland