National Museum of Scotland
National Museums Collection Centre is the location of the majority of their collections. It has facilities for undertaking research on collections, as well as conservation and scientific research laboratories.
Those wishing to research the collections should contact the relevant curatorial department. Appointments have to be made in advance and they advise two working weeks as a minimum application turnaround. All research applications will be assessed according to departmental availability.
Those wishing to enquire about access to the collections for scientific research, should first contact the relevant curatorial department, who will refer the enquiry to the Collections Science team for review.
Their library services support the research and learning needs of Museum staff, visitors, and the wider external research community, while the National Museums Scotland Research Repository contains recently published articles and books written by staff. The archive enables the museum to make their research more widely available to all and to ensure materials are preserved to maintain access in the future.
In June 2015, a new state-of-the art collections research, access and storage facility was unveiled at the Collection Centre. The building, which houses nearly ten million objects, enables material from Scottish History, Archaeology and Natural Sciences collections to be preserved in optimal conditions which will both safeguard their long term future and allow a substantially greater level of access to the national collections, particularly for research purposes.
