Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal August 2006 Volume 4(4)

Special collections: focus

A role in history

Paulette Hill describes the services provided by the Library at Historic Scotland, and some of its current challenges.

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Executive Education Department. Its mission is “to safeguard the historic environment (historic monuments and buildings, and designed landscapes and gardens) and to promote its understanding and enjoyment to the general public”. My role is to provide a library and information service to all Historic Scotland (HS) staff, and also to researchers and the general public upon request.

The Library provides information and resources concerning the historic environment (for example archaeology, architecture, history, cultural and natural heritage, environment, relevant legislation, standards), in many formats, from our own collections, and via interlibrary loans and literature searches. An archive holds Historic Scotland publications and some of its unpublished reports. We also hold some early editions and facsimile folio volumes of architectural drawings and plans of monuments and buildings.

Archival material on the historic environment is held at the National Monuments Record for Scotland, located at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Colleges and universities often ask us to take on library and information studies students on work placement and we try to oblige.

With my other hat on as Records Manager I am involved in overall policy concerning our official records (files), and issues such as theming, file reviewing, preservation and disposal of records, freedom of information, and keeping abreast of ERDM (Electronic Records Document Management) systems developments; this involves working in close tandem with our central Registry staff and users group, and with National Archives of Scotland records managers. At present, Historic Scotland has a computerised indexing and tracking system for our paper files but has not yet gone down the ERDM route. This is something that will be revisited to see if the business drivers warrant adopting an ERDM system, or if not, how we can better manage our electronic information under the current freeform system of indexing, storage and archiving.

Some of the main issues and challenges facing our service at the moment are keeping up to date with acquiring new, relevant documents, some of which increasingly are becoming available in electronic format only, and subscription, access, licence and copyright issues relating to electronic journals and databases.

The Library is very well used by various core groups of professional HS staff, and researchers but there is an ongoing need for raising our profile. We already have some library pages on our intranet, and our new library leaflets, and bookmarks, produced a few months ago, have been distributed to all HS staff and to researchers as they visit. The plan is to get these updated as information services, needs, and trends change. As a follow-up we plan to visit our regional offices over the forthcoming year, as part of a road show, to meet staff and to spread the word about Historic Scotland Library and the services we can offer. We also have an established internal library users group which meets on a quarterly basis, and this is another focus for feedback and discussion between library users and staff, and formulation of policy, in order to improve the efficiency of the service. HS Library is also a member of ELISA (Edinburgh Libraries and Information Services Agency) and this provides opportunities to network and exchange ideas with other professional colleagues.

Paulette Hill is Library and Records Manager, Historic Scotland.

Further information

Historic Scotland also has a Resource Centre specialising in technical conservation publications. Contact: Moira Willis, Resource Centre Manager

In addition, the Historic Scotland Photographic Library is an archive consisting of over a million images covering all areas of the historic environment. For further information or to arrange for an appointment to view the collection please contact: Bryony J Coombs, Photographic Librarian.

For National Monument Records of Scotland please contact: Norma Aldred, Book Curator, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland

Information Scotland Vol. 4(4) August 2006

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.