SCAN website domain registration not renewed but catalogue still available

The Scottish Archive Network (www.scan.org.uk) website is currently down, but the catalogue, which details holdings of about fifty archives across Scotland, is still directly accessible at https://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/scancatalogue/search.aspx.

The SCAN website was last updated over fifteen years ago, and has been superceded by many local archive catalogues now available online, but it remains the only single point of entry for information on many collections held across Scotland. In addition are many useful tools such as the Knowledge Base. 

A recently cached version of the site on the Internet Archive, snapped in early October, is available at https://web.archive.org/web/20211009072058/https://www.scan.org.uk/.

Hopefully it will be restored soon.

 

UPDATE: I've asked a few genie chums if they know what is up, and a huge thanks to Fergus Smith for coming up with some useful info on this. It would appear that the registration of the website domain name expired on 5 OCT 2021. The registration information notes "This registration has been SUSPENDED". 

 

As one of the former directors of the SCAN trust a few years back, it was very clear to me that the SCAN project was not a much loved legacy. Attempts to create an up to date replacement project have drifted for many years. If this is the final end of the site, it is deeply unfortunate that the archive sector has not yet been able to create an alternative.  

I would also be interested to know what is happening with the remaining trust funds if this is the case.

In the meantime, perhaps the NRS could update its Catalogues page at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/catalogues-and-indexes to link directly to the SCAN catalogue portal? 

If this is a simple lapse, it appears that there are 83 days from the date of expiry of the domain to renew it, before it is permanently cancelled. 

(With thanks to my Pharos students for flagging it up, and to Fergus)

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.