Lothian Lives - Showcasing Local Council Archives

* Did you know that Edinburgh’s citizens were gripped by terror in the wake of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and that the authorities began recording the movement of Edinburgh’s so-called “aliens”?

* Did you know that aliens visited West Lothian again in the 1970’s, during the highest period of extra-terrestrial sightings in the UK’s history?

* Did you know that the Midlothian Archives hold a Dalkeith Doctor’s travel diary written in the last phases of the British Raj?

* Did you know that one of the heroes of the 1854 ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ lived in Dunbar, East Lothian?

The Lothian Lives project is a joint initiative of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian council archives. The project is part of a U.K. wide archives awareness campaign and aims to shine a light on the rich holdings of local council archive collections. Funded by the Scottish Council on Archives, the project is the first time council archives in Edinburgh and the Lothians have worked together to bring Scottish archives to life using the web.

For more information on the above stories and to discover lots more visit us at www.lothianlives.org.uk


Kind regards,
Frances

Frances Woodrow Archivist
Library & Museum HQ Dunbar Road Haddington EH41 3PJ
01620 828229

Business Archives Strategy consulation

Dear colleagues,

The Scottish Council on Archives is pleased to announce the public consultation phase in the development of a National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland.

Lead by the Business Archives Council of Scotland and the Ballast Trust with the support of the National Archives of Scotland, the strategy shares the same goals as its counterpart, a National Strategy for Business Archives (England & Wales), but addresses the challenges of business records within a Scottish context.

We invite archivists and informational professional, users, business persons, lawyers, liquidators and anyone else with a connection to or interest in business records to respond to the consultation. Naturally, we want to hear from those in Scotland but we are also keen to hear from those elsewhere in the UK and abroad, recognising the fact that business doesn't recognise national or international borders.

The draft strategy and response forms can be accessed at:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/archives/bacs/nationalstrategyforbusinessarchives/

You may wish to follow the progress of the strategy via the blog:
http://businessarchivesscotland.blogspot.com/

The deadline response date for the strategy is Friday 28 May 2010.

Best wishes,

Becky Penneck

Events and Administration

Scottish Council on Archives
0131 535 1362
www.scoarch.org.uk

Results of Career Survey

Are you interested in how your career progression and salary banding compares with others in the record-keeping profession?

A survey undertaken earlier this year in relation to the profile of the record-keeping profession in Scotland, identified differences between the salary levels and experience of archivists and record managers. Records management roles typically required more on the job experience and commanded a higher salary, whereas archives roles were more often filled by staff earning in the lowest pay scale.

The variations of salary scales in the local authority, higher education and business sectors showed that roles in universities and businesses were generally better paid than those in local authorities. There was not enough data from the survey to allow for meaningful analysis of pay banding and experience levels within the sectors.

The questionnaire addressed job vacancies advertised in the last 12 months, finding that these were evenly split between those which required a professional qualification in archives and records management and those that did not.

Read the report or download it here

Susan Fisher
SoAS Careers Officer

SOAS blog launched

Hello and welcome to the Society of Archivists, Scottish region's new blog. This online resource replaces our bi-annual newsletter, A Scottish Accent. Information will appear here about SOAS's meetings and training events, and about projects and activities happening around the Scottish region. If you have news that you would like to share with other society members please contact SOAS's Publicity Officer who will add relevent details to the blog. Signing up to the blog means that all new items will be emailed directly to you. To do this click on the link on the left under 'Subscribe'. For more information about SOAS see http://www.archives.org.uk/thesociety/regions/scotland.html.