King James Library

The King James Library is situated in the South Street Library building (right) just across the quadrangle from the main Divinity buildings. It houses an excellent collection of theological and biblical studies texts, complementing the extensive holdings in the main University Library. (From 1710-1837 the Library at the University of St Andrews enjoyed copyright status and received a copy of all copyrighted books. The Manuscripts section contains over 10,000 Western manuscripts dating from the early Middle Ages.)

As well as the King James Library, the South Street Library building comprises Parliament Hall (which has ample study space) and the West Room where the service desk and short loan collection of heavily-used material are located.

King James Library - A Short History

King James Library interactive tour

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The King James Library was built on the site of the medieval College of St John - the place where teaching began in St Andrews and a fragment of which was incorporated into the present structure. The building was intended to house books bequeathed by Mary Queen of Scots for the founding of a library, together with the University's existing collections.

1612 King James VI & I (left) promised sufficient finance to enable work on the library to start, however funding problems were to mean that construction was not completed until 1643. The building was to comprise a lower hall, which was used as a teaching room, together with the upper hall, which was to accommodate the books. To these, James added some collections of volumes (known as the 'foundation gift').

1645-6 Due to an outbreak of plague in Edinburgh, the Scottish Parliament met in the lower hall of the library. Thereafter the room became known as Parliament Hall. It is still used as a debating chamber by the University Debating Society. The picture to the right is an artist's impression of what the hall looked like in the 17th century. The professor sat in the wooden chair in the centre of the picture (which is still in the University's possession), while the students sat on the benches to the sides. For examinations, students were required to stand on a black granite block (next to the professor's chair) and be examined orally (in Latin) in front of the rest of the class.

1668-74 Mathematician/astronomer and inventor of the first practical reflecting telescope, James Gregory had his workshop in the upper hall (the King James Library). He had a wooden line set into the floor to delineate the meridian line for use in his observations. He used this in conjunction with a metal sight fixed outside one of the windows, which he lined up with a post on the horizon exactly due south of the library. The illustration to the left shows Gregory at work in the library, with the meridian line clearly visible. Little-known in his day, Gregory's work has been re-evaluated recently and is now thought to be on a par with that of his contemporary, Sir Isaac Newton.

1765-7 As the library was at the time a copyright deposit library, pressure of space meant that it became necessary to extend the King James Library by raising the walls and inserting a gallery. Dr Johnson admired the finished room as an 'elegant and luminous' chamber on a visit described in his `A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland' in 1773. John Wesley also visited in 1776 and described St Mary's College as having a handsome library.

1881 The library was used as the setting for a short story, 'The Library Window' by the well-known Scottish author Margaret Oliphant.

1977 Due to continued problems accommodating the holdings, the building was further extended several times. Eventually the stock outgrew the site and a new University Library building was opened on North Street in 1977. The King James Library then became a dedicated Divinity library.

Today the collections within both the King James Library and the Main Library are catalogued within the University's integrated, online system, SAULCAT. Staff at the King James Library, Colin Bovaird (Librarian) and Lynda Kinloch (Assistant Librarian) are available to assist students in making the fullest possible use of these significant scholarly resources.