SCAN website to be killed off on January 9th 2025

The end is nigh for the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) website at www.scan.org.uk, which has been replaced by the new Your Scottish Archives platform (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2024/12/your-scottish-archive-catalogue-launches.html). The following announcement is currently being carried at the top of the SCAN platform, which for twenty years has provided a catalogue detailing holdings in over fifty archives across Scotland:

Please be aware that from 9 January 2025 this website, The Scottish Archive Network, will be decommissioned.

The SCAN website will have had its final web archive completed and all the content, apart from access to the Highlands and Islands Emigration records, will be available via National Records of Scotland Web archive.
 
The Highland and Island Emigration records database (HD4/5) is already available to search for free on the Scotland's People website.  Researchers just need to register for a free account in order to search it.

There is also a supporting record guide for researchers which provides background information and explains how to search the database at the Scotland's People help and support guides.

RIP SCAN...

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) website is back online

Having flagged up its disappearance on Sunday (http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/11/scan-website-down-but-catalogue-still.html), and having then raised it with the Scottish Council on Archives (www.scottisharchives.org.uk), I am glad to see that the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) website at www.scan.org.uk is now back online. The website hosts many useful tools, including the SCAN catalogue, which provides access to information about holdings in about 50 archives across Scotland.

The site's domain name had not been renewed, prompting its disappearance, but I noticed last night that it was renewed again yesterday until early 2023. 

Hopefully if the SCA's plans for the new Your Scottish Archives platform (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/11/scan-website-to-be-replaced-by-new-your.html) stick to the proposed timeline of late 2022, it may not be need to be renewed again.

(With thanks to the SCA and to my Pharos course students)

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.

SCAN to be replaced by new Your Scottish Archives platform

Following my post yesterday about the disappearance of the Scottish Archives Network (SCAN) website, which appears to have happened because the domain registration has not been renewed (see http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2021/11/scan-website-down-but-catalogue-still.html), I asked the Scottish Council on Archives (www.scottisharchives.org.uk) for a comment. They have responded as follows:

We are not aware of any plans to make SCAN inaccessible currently - we will do a bit of investigating. The development of the new portal is well underway with content planned to be transferred from SCAN next year. A fuller update can be found here: https://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/latest/news/new-archives-portal-announced/

The SCA's announcement of a replacement for SCAN, to be called Your Scottish Archives, is one that I missed last year. The report linked to above notes that "SCA plans to launch the new Your Scottish Archives towards the end of 2022. The project has been delayed by the pandemic and lockdowns but we are back on track. We will be contacting repositories in early 2022 to start the process of collecting data."

In the meantime, I have also asked the National Records of Scotland if it can redirect users of its catalogues page at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/catalogues-and-indexes to the SCAN catalogue link at https://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/scancatalogue/search.aspx rather than to the currently non-working www.scan.org.uk domain, if there is a problem in renewing its registration. (I can't imagine a reason for this not to be possible.)

(With thanks to the SCA via Twitter at @ScotsArchives)

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.

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.

National Records of Scotland catalogue issue

The National Records of Scotland website at http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/welcome.aspx notes that its catalogue is currently unavailable, due to maintenance work at the archive:

I have found that the direct link to the catalogue is working temperamentally at http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/welcome.aspx, but this may come or go. 

The associated Scottish Archive Network catalogue (SCAN) seems to be working fine at http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/scancatalogue/welcome.aspx, and the National Register of Archives for Scotland at http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrasregister/welcome.aspx, but again, if problems emerge, it will likely be associated with the same maintenance work.

(With thanks to the NRS)

Update 8 DEC: Catalogues seem to be accessible again.

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.