The Scottish Poetry Library was founded in 1984 by the poet Tessa Ransford. It originally had two staff members, including Scottish poet, Tom Hubbard, and 300 books, but has since expanded considerably to containing 30,000 items of Scottish and international poetry. The library contains material in Scotland's three indigenous languages: Scottish Gaelic, Lowland Scots, and English.
The library is involved in Scotland's Virtual reference scheme, Ask Scotland, where users can 'Ask an Expert' online. Reference questions posed via the Ask Scotland website can be referred to a member of staff at the Scottish Poetry Library. This service has been available since 2011.
Read more about Scottish Poetry Library: The Building
Famous quotes containing the words scottish, poetry and/or library:
“We’ll never know the worth of water till the well go dry.”
—18th-century Scottish proverb, collected in James Kelly, Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, no. 351 (1721)
“There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a poem which the mass of men hear and read. What is poetry in the common sense, but a hearing of such jingling names? I want nothing better than a good word. The name of a thing may easily be more than the thing itself to me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)