Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy table-top roleplaying game that combines improvisation, storytelling, and strategy. It was born out of a combination of war-gaming, in which participants simulate historic battles using miniature figurines, and the fantasy literature of J.R.R Tolkein, Jack Vance, and Poul Anderson. It was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, […]
Category: 21st-century items
5,000 sites archived and counting – Scottish web archiving in the UK.
At the end of August 2018 added my 5000th URL to the UK Web Archive – and despite being, at the time of writing, two months ago it is a chance to reflect on my archiving experience. I was something of a late comer to web archiving although I knew of the concept having written […]
Getting to know the UK domain crawl
2014 was a fairly eventful year in Scotland; over this period, colleagues and I were working in co-operation with the British Library, National Library of Wales and Bodleian Library, to select and create archived versions of sites in two webarchive collections: Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum At the same time, Generation: 25 Years […]
The Man Booker Prize at 50: Scottish authors and publishers that made the shortlist
In 2018 the Man Booker Prize celebrates its 50th anniversary. The first award was made in 1969 but most of the novels shortlisted were published in 1968. The 2018 shortlist will be announced on 20th September and the 2018 winner on the 16th October. To mark fifty years of the prize we thought we would […]
Virago Modern Classics celebrate 40 years of rediscovering forgotten novels
When Hilary Mantel returned to Britain in 1982 after living in Botswana for five years she noticed unfamiliar green book spines everywhere. She discovered that these were Virago Modern Classics and recognised them as a change for the better in the world of publishing. Virago was founded in 1975 by Carmen Callil, Marsha Rowe and Rosie […]
Happy Birthday Beano!
The Beano is Britain’s longest running comic and celebrated its 80th birthday on 30th July 2018. So a slightly belated happy birthday. We did though throw a party for the Beano at our Kelvin Hall premises in Glasgow on Saturday the 28th of July. We showed for one day only our copy of Beano issue […]
Fashion Collections at the NLS
Vogue The Covers HB6.218.6.89, 100 Years of Fashion PB6.212.838/10, Behind The Runway HB6.217.2.36 The General Collections available at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) cover a diverse range of topics from Mountaineering to Music. You can find help and information to set up a business, indulge a passion, learn a new skill or delve into […]
Jim Clark
When it came to the launch of a Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 there could have been no more natural choice than Jim Clark – by any standard, a Scottish sporting great. Winner of a then record twenty-five Formula 1 Grand Prix, Clark was a respected international motor-racing superstar whose sheer skill meant […]
‘Engraved in the Flesh’: Tattoos in History
On the ground floor of the Surgeons Hall Museum in Edinburgh there is a glass jar with a piece of skin. On this skin is the tattoo of a lady. This tattoo is discolored and disfigured by chemicals and age. Any other information is purely speculative. We don’t know who created the tattoo, who bore […]
Posh Pancakes
If you plan to mark Shrove Tuesday by making some pancakes this year, look no further than Posh Pancakes for some inspiration. With over 70 different pancakes to choose from, it is the recipe for the perfect Pancake Day next week!