Collections consultation data

This dataset contains anonymised information about printed materials consulted in the Library’s General and Special Collections reading rooms from 2019-2023. 

The data includes the following fields: 

–Loans: how many times an item has been consulted in our reading rooms 

–Title: title of the item 

–Author: author(s) of the item 

–MMS Id: Alma (Library Management System used at National Library of Scotland) identification code for the bibliographic record of item 

–Barcode: barcode of the item 

–Call number: physical location of item in library stacks 

–Circulation Desk Description: reading room location of the item 

–Patron Group: General reader (including students or higher education access) or Library Staff 

–Publication date: date of publication of the item 

–Loan date: date the item was first consulted 

–Return date: date the item was returned 

–Subjects: Library of Congress subject headings for the item 

This data does not include: 

-Archives, manuscripts, maps, serials, moving image or sound consultations (some of these are planned for future, separate, releases)

-Online resources (such as journal articles, digitised material and other eresources) consultations