FAQs

Your Scottish Archives in an on-line portal which shows catalogue descriptions for materials held in archival collections kept by many different organisations across Scotland. The site also provides guides to finding and using archival collections in Scotland, including a glossary of archival and historic terms.

The Your Scottish Archives portal does not itself look after any original archival materials.

The portal includes catalogues for all kinds of archival collections, from those held in universities, to those kept by community groups. Some archive services provide descriptions which are summaries of a whole collection of items; in other cases, you may see descriptions of individual items. To be able to see the archive collections, you will need to get in touch with the archives service which looks after the material in which you are interested.

Your Scottish Archives only holds information which has been added by archive holders. Please note, not all archive holders in Scotland have added information. You can see which archives are participating by looking at our list of contributors.

In some cases, descriptions of archival materials which you may see in a catalogue contain language which is offensive. This can include

• racist language
• ableist terms
• historical descriptions of a cultural group or community that are not how the community choose to describe themselves
• descriptions which are judgemental or exclusionary

Why is offensive language being used?

In some cases, this may reflect the original language of the historical source. One example may be if the original title of an item, such as a report or picture, uses offensive terms. You may notice that the archive service has placed the title in inverted commas, or used the term ‘sic’ to signal that this is the original language e.g. “offensive title here” or “offensive title” [sic]

Keeping original language helps to:

• provide an honest picture of the ways in which oppression and exclusion, such as racism, exist in our heritage
• give a sense of a historic record in its original form

If you find language or content in a description which you find offensive or problematic, please let the holding archive know.

You can find contact details for a repository by clicking on ‘repository details’ next to the description you have found. Archivists are working hard to make their descriptions as accurate as possible, but catalogues often contain a lot of information which was added in the past. It is very helpful to know when something isn’t quite right.

Please see our extensive glossary for a guide to some of the historic terms you may find in archival descriptions and catalogues.

For a guide to the different types of information within an archive’s catalogue and how catalogues are put together, please see our catalogue introduction video.

Please get in touch with the Archive Holder for the catalogue entry concerned. You may find their contact details by clicking on the Archive Holder’s name within the catalogue.

Alternatively, you may contact the Scottish Council on Archives via your@scottisharchives.org.uk

Not every archive holder in Scotland adds information about their collections to Your Scottish Archives. We are currently working with over 100 Archives to add further information about their archival material.

Where an archive holder does contribute to Your Scottish Archives, bear in mind that adding collection descriptions takes time and an Archive may not yet have added information about all the material they hold.

Our search help pages offer advice on how to get the most information from the catalogues which are available.

You may also find out Knowledge Base articles on which records are available for different research topics helpful in furthering your search.

To find out more information about archival items or collections you have found through Your Scottish Archives, or to see material in person, you will need to contact the archive holder directly.

You can find out contact information for each archive holder by clicking on the archive holder’s name in their catalogue entry.

When making contact with an archival repository, it is helpful to include where you found out about their collections and the reference number for the collection or item you wish to know more about.