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 June 2007 Volume 5(3)

Special collections

Web Focus: Special collections – Part 1 Gems of the Highlands and Islands

The Perth College Library Team provides another roundup of useful websites – on Scotland’s rich special collections holdings.

More in the August issue.

The UHI Millennium Institute holds several special collections across its partner colleges.
Highland Theological College houses two notable collections:

The Fort Augustus Collection: Approx. 14,000 volumes, mainly books and serials, which made up the theological stock of the Fort Augustus Abbey library. It includes a complete set of Migne’s Patrologiae Completus (360-volume set of works of the Early Church Fathers in the original Greek and Latin).
The William Temple Collection: William Temple was the late Archbishop of Canterbury (early 1940s).
Approximately 5,000 volumes, it has comprehensive theological coverage and includes the Martin Luther King section which deals with social sciences. Previously the late Archbishop of Canterbury’s private collection.

Lews Castle College houses two special collections:

The Frances G Thompson Collection: 1,500 titles gradually being transferred from Frank Thompson’s personal library to the College library. Approx. 500 books and pamphlets are currently on display, mostly on Highlands and Islands history and topography, and Gaelic, with the remainder of Scottish and Irish interest.
The Shawbost Collection: Journal articles, research papers and reports on the geology, archaeology, flora and fauna of the Western Isles.

Perth College holds:

The Robert Robertson Collection: An archive collection of monographs, journals, reports and research papers related to industrial geology and its applications, donated by the late Robert Robertson, Scottish geologist and geochemist. The collection dates from 1938-1978 and includes geological data from around the world, fossil samples and industrial samples of minerals (stored at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow).

North Highland College has several collections including:

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise Collection, Horological Collection and Dounreay Jounals.
Highlands Collection: Books, maps and journals particularly on northern Highlands and islands, with some antiquarian and rare items. Proceedings of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland 1914 to date.
SNH Collection: Ecological and natural history journals – 10 titles, from 1907 up to 2001. Aerial photographs of Caithness from the 1960s.

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig lays claim to a rich collection of Gaelic and Celtic materials.

The Celtica Collection: Approx. 1,600 items collected by a 19th century gentleman scholar, Sir Robert Gordon of Letterfourie (1824-1908) and bequeathed to Fort Augustus Abbey Library. The main strength of the Collection is in Celtic Studies material, especially Scottish Gaelic language and literature. There are also rare books on archaeology, history and genealogy and an impressive range of journals.
The MacCormaig Collection: The life’s work of the pre-eminent Gaelic bookseller and collector, Donald MacCormaig (North Uist / Edinburgh). One of the finest collections of early printed Gaelic materials available. Approx. 1,800 items dating from the 17th century. The collection covers Gaelic language and literature and many other topics relating to Highland social history.
78rpm Record Collection: Donated by the BBC Archive, Parlophone, Beltona and Gaelfonn recordings of mainly Gaelic singers, and rare items.

• College librarians’ email addresses are on the UHI Library contact page.

Emma Brown, Richard Hughes & Donald MacLean, with thanks to UHI partner librarians for their help.

Information Scotland Vol. 5(3) June 2007

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.