Silver Screen Stories
Explore Scotland’s past on film in a library like no other
IF your idea of a library is a tranquil building where the habitual silence is broken only by hushed voices and the reverent turning of pages, think again. The National Library of Scotland (NLS) at Kelvin Hall hosts vast digital book and manuscript collections, as well as the Moving Image Archive – Scotland’s national collection of moving images. Here, visitors can view archive films and videos covering more than 100 years of Scottish history.
Róisín Kelly, access and events team leader at NLS, says, “It’s a unique, family-friendly space – with movie, image and sound collections.
“People might feel they have to be quiet, but we are not a silent space – and there’s something for everyone.
“The film archive is a different way to explore Scotland’s past.”
Kelvin Hall was formerly the location for the Glasgow Museum of Transport, which relocated to the Riverside Museum in 2011. After a significant redevelopment, the NLS opened at the venue in 2016.
Róisín says, “People here have fond memories of Kelvin Hall. It’s nice to come with parents or grandparents to relive their younger days and explore how life in Scotland looked in the past.”
As well as a massive 12-screen video wall playing highlights from the archive, the discovery area has a wall devoted to the history of film-making in Scotland, where cinema posters, vintage cameras and other artefacts from the Moving Image Archive are displayed together.
You can even see the Oscar presented for the award-winning film Seawards The Great Ships, a documentary on shipbuilding on the Clyde.
Two large discovery chests in the area illustrate the richness and variety of 20th-century Scottish life. Together they take a number of themes – fun, home, work and place – with printed items, film clips and objects gathered together to provoke memories or surprise.
The library’s interactive touchscreens have a range of themed video packages for visitors to view. Specially compiled by community groups, external experts and NLS curators, these packages bring together some of the best films and sound recordings from the archive.
Róisín’s favourite films feature the evacuation of
“Amazing to see the actual footage from a time” snapshot in
St Kilda in 1930. She says, “It’s amazing to be able to watch the actual footage from that snapshot in time.
“It’s emotional, but the islanders look as if they’re happy to be moving on to the next phase in their lives.”
Some films can be seen remotely via the NLS website, but there are even more available to view on site at Kelvin Hall. The Beatles In Dundee, filmed in 1964 and produced by Grampian Television, is one of those you can only see on site.
Visitors can watch more than 4700 digitised films at Kelvin Hall – including the 1700 items which cannot be seen outside the library for copyright reasons – though you’d be there for a while!
Also available at the Kelvin Hall building are thousands of maps, newspapers, ebooks, ejournals, reference works and databases – and, as a legal deposit library, the NLS has the right to claim a copy of everything published in the UK and Ireland.
Róisín says, “The NLS is the only legal deposit library in Scotland – now the summer holidays are over, it’s a great place for young people to research their school projects.”
Recent events at the library include a free screening of a reggae documentary – Inna De Yard is about a group of reggae legends recording a new album together – and the launch of the archive of Glasgow photographer Alan Dimmick.
And if you’ve worked up an appetite, there are snacks and light meals available at the café in Kelvin Hall. This iconic venue is also home to a state-of-the-art health and fitness centre, and the Clip ’n Climb climbing walls.
Whether you’re interested in exploring aspects of Scotland’s past or taking a trip down memory lane to revisit old haunts, there’s something for everyone at NLS – and not a shushing librarian in sight.