This blog post by Joe Nockels explores the creation of the first Library dataset to be generated using the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR). As a result we now have an accurate semi-automatic transcription of the diaries of Scottish child author Marjory Fleming (1803-1811). Few historical texts voice the experience of […]
Author: Staff Writer
Exploring climate change, environmental damage and race.
Through newspaper and journal articles accessed via Ethnic NewsWatch, this blog post by our Climate Crisis Intern explores the relationship between climate change, environmental damage, and race. “Global climate change is experienced very differently across race, gender, class and nationality.” So begins a 2012 article from Race, Gender & Class, a journal available on Ethnic […]
Festive films by the fireside
Now it’s December, we’re opening a selection box of festive films from the Moving Image Archive, not least because they can’t be shared on the big screen at the Library this year. Luckily, many films in the archive can be savoured wherever you are in the world. This short blog will showcase a few festive […]
Reading list: In reflection of Black History Month
In reflection of US Black History Month, the cohort of interns here at the National Library of Scotland have curated a reading list of titles from the Library’s ever-expanding print and digital collections relating to Black history. Our internships are as follows: Access and Outreach Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Climate Crisis Gaelic Translation Rights and Personalisation Creating Media Content This small selection of material comes from a larger pool of […]
Black History Month and eResources
As the creating content intern for the National Library, I’m working on creating an online media centre and expanding our media contacts. My work will focus on researching up-and-coming journalists, writers and art curators from a range of backgrounds across the UK and beyond. I aim to connect Black creators and journalists from across Scotland, […]
Wild Scotland on Film
‘’The light of enchantment on heather and lochan, the curler’s call, the fragrance of green bog myrtle, slow silence enfolding all’’ Bee Keeping in the North (1946) (Intertitles on silent film) Scotland’s great outdoors features in many memorable films – think of the brooding mountains of Glencoe in ‘Skyfall’ or the breathtaking Aberdeenshire village of […]
21st Century Periods
In early 2020, following the Government’s Period Poverty Bill and the subsequent Let’s Call Periods, Periods campaign, we committed to supplying free sanitary products in our buildings. By happy coincidence, General Collections curators Dora Petherbridge and Jan Usher had been working with Professor Bettina Bildhauer and Dr Camilla Mørk Røstvik of St Andrews University, who […]
Celebrating Scottish Publisher Legacies at the Edinburgh Book Festival
The weekend saw the launch of the Edinburgh Book Festival 2020, an online pageant of literary events about the latest page-turners including several events by authors signed to Scottish publishers. From Canongate to 404 Ink and other greats in between, publishers are essential to keeping the National Library of Scotland’s catalogue full of the latest […]
Pressing forward
At the National Library, we delight in seeing the reactions of visitors to our exhibitions, in welcoming people to our reading rooms, and constantly turning the page on materials that make up the nation’s permanent collection. It’s a privilege to share in the discoveries made by people visiting the Library that help us all to […]
A Library placement
Hi there! My name is Tara and I am an Information and Library Science MSc student at the University of Strathclyde. From January to March I was on a student placement at the National Library of Scotland. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to gain some real work experience and put theories from my […]