Whenever new records (individual images, videos or sounds) get added to Scran, they’re uploaded in batches or, as we call them, Projects. These Projects are discrete blocks of material, usually on a particular topic or theme. If you find a Scran record that you enjoy, you can click the “View All Records in Project” link in the caption metadata- the bits of extra info under the postcard-sized image- and see more related materials. Similarly, you can see all the Projects that we’ve uploaded by clicking on the word Search in the red toolbar at the top of any Scran page, selecting Projects, and then selecting Find All.

The titles and subjects of these Projects vary. The first one uploaded (number 001) was The Kilmartin Monuments, while the most recent at the time of writing (number 1128) collects images of Edinburgh taken by Italian students. Between then and now, we’ve uploaded projects on Product Design (number 950), Montserrat (number 911), the collection of Orkney’s Pier Arts Centre (number 687), as well as over a thousand more. Sometimes these Projects contain only 20 images or so, occasionally even fewer. The largest, the V&A Collection (number 930), numbers nearly 26,000 images.

Usually these Projects, once loaded onto Scran, are not revisited or revised by our staff, save for minor edits, typos, additional info being added etc. All of which makes Project number 540, Scottish Writers, a little unusual. A few weeks ago, one of our IT staff- thanks, Sven- noticed that the project was never fully completed, and all the submitted video clips were not uploaded. Why this should have happened is unclear, the reasons lost in the mists of time.

However, we’ve now rectified this and, some 16 years after submission, the videos now appear in full on Scran!  They’re definitely of their time, being short and quite low resolution, BUT the content is terrific. You can now see Ian Rankin, Iain Crichton Smith, Theresa Breslin, Anne Lorne Gillies, Tom Pow, Julie Bertagna, Alan Spence, Alison Prince, Cathy MacPhail, Bernard MacLaverty, Carl MacDougall, Des Dillon, Dylis Rose, George Mackay Brown, janet Paisley, Janice Galloway and Joan Lingard talking about, and reading from, their work. This material will be particularly useful to language and literature teachers, but anybody interested in Scottish literature in its “golden age”, as Iain Crichton Smith described it, will find these archive clips fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image © SLAINTE | Licensor Scran