News: Edinburgh's Festival of Libraries

The first taste of an exciting new service for family historians will be available in Edinburgh on Saturday, 6th October 2007. Visitors to Edinburgh's Festival of Libraries in the Assembly Rooms will have an early opportunity to discover the resources of the ScotlandsPeople Centre, which is due to open in Edinburgh in spring 2008.

The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) will also be present, to offer help for people interested in discovering more about local and family history, and the many other subjects for which NAS holds rich source material.

The NAS and ScotlandsPeople are just two of more than 40 Edinburgh-based library and information services that will be showcasing the wealth and range of their information resources.

There will be a talk on the new ScotlandsPeople Centre, which will provide access to records of births, marriages and deaths and censuses, the wills of Scots up to 1901, and coats of arms up to 2004. The Centre is a joint initiative of the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland, and the Court of the Lord Lyon.

The one-day festival will also feature other talks, exhibits, demonstrations and children's activities - in fact, there will be something for everyone. It is a free event and doors are open from 10am to 4pm. The Assembly Rooms are on George Street, between Hanover St and Frederick St.