Leith Library is one of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

's 28 freely-accessible libraries. It is a category B listed building. located in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

, in the northern part of the city, at the foot of

Ferry Road Ferry Road is one of the major roads of Edinburgh, Scotland, deriving its name from being the road from Queensferry to Leith. It runs from the eastern end of Davidson's Mains village in the west, to Leith in the east, passing through Drylaw, ...

shortly before it meets Great Junction Street and North Junction Street. The stone marking the first phase of construction was laid by the then Lord Provost, Alexander Stevenson in 1929. It was designed by

Bradshaw Gass & Hope Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English architectural practice founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw (–1912). The style "Bradshaw Gass & Hope" was adopted after his death referring to the remaining partners John Bradshaw Gass and Arthur John Ho ...

and opened in 1932. The building suffered bomb damage in 1941 but was subsequently restored and re-opened in 1955. The library is currently open six days a week and, in addition to the collection of books, offers visitors computer access, a for-hire community room, public exhibition space, a knitting group and a weekly children's crafts class/workshop. Local-area MSP Ben Macpherson also hosts surgeries within the library, and the local registrar's office adjoins the main library building. To the building's rear is the Leith Theatre. As with all the City's libraries, Leith public library uses 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 librar ...

system for its adult collection. As of 1974, Edinburgh is the only area in the UK where public libraries utilise the US classification scheme. Children's books, and some non-English works, are indexed using the

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), 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. Section 4.1 ...

scheme.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Libraries in Edinburgh Library buildings completed in 1961 Category B listed buildings in Edinburgh Listed library buildings in Scotland Buildings and structures in Leith Libraries established in 1961 1961 establishments in Scotland