Went on a tour of the National Library of Scotland last Friday, and very informative it was too. The most interesting part was seeing behind the scenes. Their meeting room has a lovely view of the top of St Giles Cathedral and out towards Arthur’s Seat, which was peering up out of the mist.

I had wondered where all the books were stored as the building seems quite smaller – only two or three storeys higher than the entrance on George IV Bridge. However, the building goes right down under the bridge to Cowgate, and we walked down a Vertigo style spiral staircase to reach one of the stock rooms. This was filled with books, sorted by years of acquisition, subject and – in order to use space as efficiently as possible – height.