Part 1: Data Mapping Project Update

For the last six weeks as part of the Data Mapping Project I have been working to update and enhance an extracted dataset of Scottish business archive collections held by the National Register of Archives. The project funded by the Archives and Records Association is part of a wider project by the National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland.

As you may have seen from my previous post, the aim of the project is to provide a new online resource which presents the enhanced dataset in visually new ways. The finished resource will enable interpretation and analysis of the business collections by industry, geographical location and by repository sector.

This will provide a resource for archivists and researchers to explore business history by viewing business archives differently, encouraging fresh interpretation on the subject area.

One of the surprise findings of the project was Manufacturing only contributes to 1% of the total Scottish business archives with businesses involved in Shops, Merchants and Distributors representing 13%.

The project methodology and report outlining the findings and recommendations will be posted here shortly. Future stages of the Data Mapping Project will also be posted on this page.

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2011 Review of Implementation

2011 was the first full year of implementation for the National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland.  To mark this we have prepared the following infographic to highlight some of our achievements in our first year.

You can download a pdf version of of the Annual Review to see it in more detail.  This also has information about general business archive news in 2011 on the reverse.

• Information about the implementation group, its members and meeting notes is available on the business archives section of the SCA website.
• Our case studies are all available online and we are planning to produce and publish more this year.
• The resources that we have created and/or published can be found in the resources section of the website.
• The results of the Data Mapping Project will be shared here on the blog and in time we will be created a page within the business archives section for detailed information about the project, its methodology, report and online resource.

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