Scottish GENES: ScotlandsPeople Centre update

Sunday 22 June 2008

ScotlandsPeople Centre update

A poster on the Talking Scot forum (http://www.talkingscot.com/) has stated that the opening date for the new ScotlandsPeople Centre has been fixed for August 25th 2008. The official website (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk) merely states the following on the matter:

Opening Date - Although we are unable yet to give an opening date for the centre we hope to be in a position to make an announcement sometime in July. We are in the final stages of developing and testing the software and once that is complete we will be in a position to make an announcement.

Prior to opening it will be possible for customers to pre book and pre pay for seats and it is strongly recommended that anyone planning to visit the centre makes use of this facility. This will alleviate queuing, especially in the first few days after opening. Full details of how and when customers will be able to do this will be announced here in the coming weeks.

The minutes of the center's user group are online at the site through the following link: ScotlandsPeople Centre Usergroup April 2008. Some interesting points include the following:

a) once a cafe is up and running in the new centre, it will no longer be possible to eat your own food brought to the centre

b) internet booking will not be initiated through the main centre website until after the opening of the centre (The main site now states "It is hoped that an online booking system for seats will be operational late in 2008 or early 2009")

c) the opening date is conditional on successful load testing on the computer system being introduced

d) there have been major problems with resourcing that have prevented updates to the centre's website - it is hoped this will be addressed in order to keep the public appraised of progress, as was originally planned

e) there is a possibility that local authority archives may become available in the centre at a future stage

As announced before, the official high profile ceremony to acknowledge the end of construction of the new centre will take place on the morning of July 4th.

In the meantime, a few pics by way of a sneak preview! (All images (c) Chris Paton)