ScotlandsPlaces transcriber project

I was asked to keep schtum on this for a bit as a few bits and bobs were tested, but as I've seen a few tweets and blog posts about it elsewhere, suspect it is OK to mention now!

The ScotlandsPlaces website at www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk has recently had a bit of a revamp and has also initiated a new volunteer transcriber programme, essentially a crowdsourcing project to essentially have all of its records transcribed and made fully searchable. To facilitate this new initiative ScotlandsPlaces will be hosting a series of workshops across the country for those wishing to become transcribers, with guidance on how to get the best of the site, tips on palaeography and more - there will also be public lectures to tie in.

For further details on the transcriber project visit the ScotlandsPlaces news page at www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/news, whilst for details of workshop events in your area visit www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/transcribe/workshops.

The site has also added new records, as supplied from the National Library of Scotland:

• The Scottish Bridges collection includes 131 historical images of the Tay (in 1879) and Forth (during 1886-1887) Bridges.
• The Photographs of the South Side of Edinburgh include 137 black and white images taken in 1929 by Alfred Henry Rushbrook on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Improvement Trust.
• The Slezer engravings from 1693 are the first ever pictorial survey of Scotland and were done by John Slezer (a military engineer).
• The "Word on the Street" collection include 1,800 Scottish broadsides between 1650 and 1910.

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!