In these days when the world of information seems to be dominated by online sources, it is heartening to find that a work of bibliographical scholarship can still appear in conventional print. When collaborating on a large‐scale survey of German imprints (Jefcote et al., 2000), Dr Kelly became aware that there was a need for a comparable work covering books from the Low Countries. Its purpose is to give a detailed account of the holdings of each relevant library so that scholars may judge whether a visit to that library is necessary for their particular field of research. Its coverage is confined to collections where scholars would have easy access, and therefore does not include some which would otherwise have been of interest, especially those in the properties of the National Trust for Scotland. (I recall visiting one of these, and being told that their policy was not to catalogue the library's holdings, lest book thieves should hear of them.) The only substantial omission is the University of Dundee, where the author could not get access to the special collections owing to building work. The publishers have not stated the cut‐off date for coverage on the title page, but it is given in the Foreword as 1800.
For each library the book provides information on contact details (including web sites); opening hours and limitations on access; travel directions; availability of special services such as photography; the general range of subjects included; the availability of printed catalogues; and brief histories of the institution and of its library (with bibliographical references when possible). Under each library there is a section devoted to each named special collection, with notes on size and coverage, on the most notable books (special attention being paid to incunabula) and on what finding aids are available. When studying the largest collections, Dr Kelly was sometimes obliged to confine himself to describing a typical simple section. The index comprises general subjects and the names of important donors.
It is no surprise to discover that Scottish research libraries possess extensive holdings of books from the Low Countries, as links between the two (commercial, scholarly and religious) were traditionally extensive, especially in the pre‐Union period. The scale of these connections is indicated in Dr Kelly's observation that the majority of the 27,000 volumes in the former Roman Catholic seminary at Blairs originated in the Low Countries. That collection is now in the National Library of Scotland, which possess more special collections than any other in the country, although there is at least one case, the 60,000 dissertations of the Dieterichs Collection, where Dr Kelly notes that they are still uncatalogued after 200 years. The library of the Royal College of Physicians of Scotland is the third‐largest medical library in Britain, and that of the Royal Observatory is stated to possess the world's best collection of early astronomical works. This carefully researched survey certainly achieves its aim of drawing attention to the riches of Scottish research libraries.
