the George Waterston library
Located in Waterston House, this is the most comprehensive ornithological library in Scotland. The collection features books, journals, and reports from around the world, with titles from Scotland and the north of England particulary well represented.
The George Waterston Library contains almost 4000 books, and between 50 and 100 new titles are added each year. The books include virtually all the major British and International handbooks and country avifaunas, field identification guides, site guides, species monographs and a good selection of works on biology, conservation and bibliography.
The breadth of the journal holding is exceptionally good, including long runs of mainly English-language titles worldwide and numerous foreign-language (especially European) titles, many of which have English summaries. There is a complete set of Scottish local and observatory bird reports as well as many similar reports from the rest of Britain and Ireland.
The library includes a fine collection of books of an antiquarian nature, but the emphasis is on the library's role as an up-to-date working collection, not only for the professional ornithologist but also for the amateur, part-time birdwatcher of variable experience.
Anyone wishing to use the library, whether a Club member or not, is most welcome to do so. We are open during normal Waterston House visitor hours, and no appointment is usually necessary. For access to rarer titles, however, we recommend that you telephone before your visit to ensure that assistance is available. (Note that we may require proof of identity and address.)
Donations of ornithological books or journals, from members or others, are always welcome. Those which duplicate library holdings are offered for sale.
The George Waterston Library, when located at Regent Terrace, held numerous boxes of material that was unsuitable for storage on the bookshelves. These boxes included offprints of papers, reports, letters, booklets, leaflets and press cuttings. This material had been augmented over the years by various librarians, although 80% dates from between 1950 and 1990. There are over 2000 individual items.
When re-located to Waterston House, it was decided to sift through this material, dispose of unwanted items and catalogue the remainder. This would provide future researchers with a searchable electronic catalogue, although some of the material is of marginal interest due to the dated subject matter.
Many of the offprints were from journals already held by the library and these have been discarded/sold. Of the reports, some are suitable for shelving, but others were considered too small/flimsy. Other material, such as hand-written or typed letters and local bird lists, was considered to be more suitable for the archives and has been dealt with separately. During the sifting, many fascinating items were found, including George Waterston's wartime bird notes from Crete, complete with a Stalag Luft stamp from his time in a German PoW camp!
The remainder has been re-housed in larger boxes, labelled and numbered, and is now shelved on a library stack. Three broad sections are included - biology and other ornithological topics, species and geographical areas. Further revision will take place, but the material can now be accessed by arrangement. There is a searchable catalogue on the Library computer. It is expected that further items will be added/removed as and when necessary.
Within the George Waterston Library we also have a substantial archive of historically important items; these include notebooks, photographs, films, sound recordings, and letters. We have now completed the cataloguing of these items.
catalogues
Select a category and click on the appropriate format to download a catalogue. Catalogues are available as Excel spreadsheets (.xls), which can be opened with Microsoft Excel or compatible software, and as PDF files, which can be opened with Adobe Reader or other compatible viewers. For books and periodicals, comma-delimited text files (.csv) are also available; these can be opened with most spreadsheet software. Most files are less than 200KB in size, except for the book catalogues, which are between 300KB and 1.1MB approx.
books
| complete list | Excel | comma-delimited text | PDF sorted by author / title / classification |
periodicals
| main list | Excel | comma-delimited text | |
| supplementary reports | Excel | ||
| online periodicals | Excel |
archive
| main list | Excel | |
| architecture (key to main list) | Excel |
additional shelf material
| box 1: Migration (migration, navigation, flight) | Excel | |
| box 2: Birdwatching/misc (plus biography, bibliography, history, museums) | Excel | |
| box 3: Ringing (reports, methods) | Excel | |
| box 4: Systematics (taxonomy) | Excel | |
| box 5: Physiology (physiology, anatomy) | Excel | |
| box 6: Biology (behaviour, song, imprinting, predation, food, populations, methods, habitats) | Excel | |
| box 7: Disease (disease, parasites) | Excel | |
| box 8: Conservation (conservation, hunting, agriculture) | Excel | |
| box 9: Conservation (reports) | Excel | |
| box 10: Pesticides (chemicals) | Excel | |
| box 11: Pollution (oil, acid rain, aircraft) | Excel | |
| box 12: Anseriformes1 (general, Swans/Geese) | Excel | |
| box 13: Anseriformes2 (ducks) | Excel | |
| box 14: Seabirds (general, Penguins-Pelicans, Divers, Petrels) | Excel | |
| box 15: Seabirds (Skuas-Auks) | Excel | |
| box 16: Waders | Excel | |
| box 17: Grouse (Galliformes) | Excel | |
| box 18: Rails, herons (Ciconiiformes, Gruiformes) | Excel | |
| box 19: Raptors | Excel | |
| box 20: Near-passerines (Doves-Woodpeckers) | Excel | |
| box 21: Passerines | Excel | |
| box 22: N & W Scotland (N Scotland to Moray/Nairn, incl Highlands N of Perth/Argyll) | Excel | |
| box 23: Outer Hebrides | Excel | |
| box 24: Inner Hebrides N (part Highland region) | Excel | |
| box 25: Foula, Fair Isle | Excel | |
| box 26: Orkney | Excel | |
| box 27: Shetland | Excel | |
| box 28: Lothians (Forth, part) | Excel | |
| box 29: Central to Aberdeen (Tayside, Aberdeen, Fife, Central) | Excel | |
| box 30: Aberlady & May | Excel | |
| box 31: S Scotland (Tweed incl Borders, Solway incl D & G) | Excel | |
| box 32: Clyde & Argyll | Excel | |
| box 33: Inner Hebrides S (Argyll region, Clyde islands) | Excel | |
| box 34: England (England, Wales, Ireland) | Excel | |
| box 35: Scandinavia (incl Denmark) | Excel | |
| box 36: Greenland (Greenland, Iceland, Faroe) | Excel | |
| box 37: C Europe (Baltic states, Germany to Bulgaria northwards incl Switz, Austria) | Excel | |
| box 38: S Europe (Iberia, France, Mediterranean Europe) | Excel | |
| box 39: N & W Africa (incl Atlantic islands, Azores) | Excel | |
| box 40: S & E Africa (incl Indian Ocean islands) | Excel | |
| box 41: Asia (Russia, Indian subcontinent excl E Indies, Middle East) | Excel | |
| box 42: Australasia (Australasia, Antarctic/subantarctic excl Falklands, Pacific & E. Indies) | Excel | |
| box 43: N America | Excel | |
| box 44: S America (C America incl Mexico/W Indies, Falklands) | Excel |