Project News January 2006

September the 1st 2005 saw two new members of staff join the RSGS team. Candida Fenton (Project manager) and Meg Hunter (Information officer) have been employed by the Society to work on the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Images for All’ project which aims to carry out conservation work on the Society’s geographical collections, raise awareness of and improve access to these valuable resources.

Project staff examining an atlas Candida and Meg complete the project team which also consists of the Project Management Group (PMG) comprising Professor Bruce Proudfoot (Chairman), Margaret Wilkes (Secretary), Barrie Brown (Finance) and Bruce Gittings (IT). The PMG act as consultants to the Project, seconding advisers as necessary, and ultimately have overall responsibility for the management of the Project.

The Society has been acquiring materials since 1884 and the collections, which include items such as antique maps, photographic records of early polar exploration, photographs by eminent explorers and mountaineers as well as the Society’s own archives, are ever increasing through generous gifts and donations. Until now there have simply not been the resources to realise the full potential of the collections.

The project team will catalogue the collections, and digitise 100 items plus one discrete collection which will be made available via the project website. It is hoped that in this way we will allow a wider audience to benefit from the collections whilst at the same time ensuring their physical condition is maintained.

Members of the RSGS Glasgow Centre
peruse a newly conserved atlas Conservation work on selected items is to be carried out by Tom Valentine Ltd. - Book Binding and Conservation, based in Larbert. The second tranche of items has already been received back at the Society’s Headquarters and we are very happy with the results.

The HLF grant will also enable us to purchase new conservation grade storage facilities for our collections to ensure they are preserved in good condition for years to come. Four new, steel, shallow-drawered map chests were delivered shortly before Christmas and work has now begun on the rehousing of the Society’s early maps of Scotland in to Mylar folders (protective transparent pockets) to be placed in the new chests.

Finally as part of our aims to raise awareness of the collections, the Society will be contributing two talks to the series of spring lectures organised by the Senior Studies Institute at the University of Strathclyde.