News: ScotlandsPlaces website

Utilising innovative technology, developed by the University of Edinburgh’s Geography Department, the project builds on recent work by the NAS and RCAHMS in digital imaging of records, gazetteer construction and geographical information systems (GIS).

In terms of historical records, the main contributions to the site from the NAS include maps and plans from the Register House Plans series, eighteenth century tax rolls and Medical Officer of Health reports for Scottish counties.

The website was launched by Culture Minister, Michael Russell MSP, as part of the Scotland’s Global Impact Conference at Inverness on 22 October 2009.

At the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) conference on 28 April 2010, ScotlandsPlaces made a presentation, along with eight other contestants, in a competition for the ‘Most Pragmatic Enabling Idea’ and the ‘Most Beneficial Information Service’.  The ScotlandsPlaces presentation covered not only the way the site improves access to historical information but also the site’s wider public benefit of demonstrating the use and strength of web services.

New additions in 2011
The NAS and NLS have added new digital resources to the website in February 2011.

From the collections of the NLS, the site now boasts Ordnance Survey (OS) first edition 6-inch maps, 1843-1882; county maps of Scotland, 1580-1928; historical town plans, 1580-1919; bathymetric surveys of the lochs of Scotland from 1897-1909.

ScotlandsPlaces and INSPIRE

The ScotlandsPlaces project is one of Scotland’s key responses to Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community (INSPIRE), which aims to ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the European Community member states are compatible.