The BFI is to extend its Mediatheque facility to Scotland for the first time in February.

Housed at Glasgow’s Bridgeton Library, the BFI Mediatheque will feature a specially commissioned collection of Scottish film and television, entitled Scottish Reels, drawn from the collections of the BFI National Archive and Scottish Screen Archive and spanning more than a century of Scottish life and culture.

The Scottish Reels collection will be permanently available alongside more than 2,500 films and TV programmes in Glasgow and at BFI Mediatheques around the UK.

Highlights include street scenes in Glasgow from 1901 and 1950s colour travelogues recording Scotland’s epic landscapes. There is also a rare television appearance from Sean Connery in a documentary he directed on the decline of the Scottish shipyards.

Feature film productions celebrated include chilling occult thriller The Wicker Man and Danny Boyle’s debut picture Shallow Grave.

Heather Stewart, creative director at the BFI, said: “We are delighted to be working with colleagues in Scotland to bring the riches of these extraordinary national collections to the general public. There’s a wonderful excitement about seeing our world through the eyes of those long dead. Seeing a film shot on Jamaica Street, Glasgow in 1901 gives you a real sense of the past in a way that no other medium can.”

BFI Mediatheques are also located in London, Derby, Cambridge, Newcastle upon Tyne and Wrexham. Additional BFI Mediatheques will open during 2013 with announcements expected later in the year.