Embracing digital technologies to preserve and record the past

At Keep Scotland Beautiful we support communities to explore and celebrate the heritage of the places they value through our programme Our Heritage, Our Future. 

This #NationalInnovationWeek we reflect on the support we have given communities to embrace digital technologies to preserve and record the past, to explore the opportunities for creating new heritage legacies and to share tools through training to learn from our past.

Alongside community members, we attended Scottish Community Archives' Community Archiving 101 training day, where we studied the journey of archival material from collection to categorisation and preservation. Recently, we expanded our knowledge by joining heritage volunteers in undertaking training in archive digitisation. We're really excited to be using our new technological skills in partnership with members of the Glasgow Sunflowers Baseball Club to digitise their club scrapbook ahead of its accession into the Mitchell Library. This will mean there is a robust, electronic version of the scrapbook available to all club members and users of the archive in future, increasing its security and accessibility.”

We’re committed to Scotland being a net zero nation by 2045 and recognise the opportunities for innovative energy industries to help shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.  Yet, the importance of our heritage, and the stories from mining communities across Scotland are important to capture and cherish.  Recording information, remembering, and learning lessons from out past is vital if we are to move forward positively.  

Katie O’Donnell, our Communities Manager commented, “Innovation is essential to drive progress, transform industries, improve lives, and tackle the climate and nature crises, but it is vital that we protect and record our heritage and learn from this.  We offer a range of activities, that suit all ages, for you and your community to understand the threats to natural and cultural heritage and the positive actions you can take to look after it – including support to log heritage digitally, preserving it for now and future generations.

“Scotland is a country rich in heritage and with a great, recognised natural beauty.  We also work with many businesses across the country to become more sustainable, recognising their innovative decisions with the International Green Key Award.

“As we celebrate Scotland’s first National Innovation Week alongside others across the country, we continue to look for ways we can support individuals, community groups and businesses to link their natural, built and intrinsic heritage to our future.”

Our Heritage, Our Future is made possible with Historic Environment Scotland and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.

Read about our work with Glasgow Sunflowers celebrate heritage and local community actions | Keep Scotland Beautiful