National Library of Scotland annual appeal - Recording the Lives of Scots

The National Library of Scotland's annual appeal for 2026 is to raise money for a project entitled Recording The Lives of Scots.

From the NLS website:

Thousands of films from our national film collection are at risk of being lost to decay or formats becoming obsolete. This year's annual appeal is raising the funds to stabilise and restore Scotland's film archive to its full glory, for the people of Scotland.

Scotland's national film archive is a diverse and distinct treasure trove. From the Oscar-winning 1960s film of the Clyde shipyard, to decades of the Kate Kennedy Parade bringing the streets of St Andrews to life, these are the lives and histories of ordinary Scots.

Since it was founded 50 years ago, following a huge response to a public appeal for film, Scotland's film archive has collected 26,000 films. Housed at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall, it is a fascinating, democratic archive, uniquely able to reflect viewers' own stories back to them.

To date, 13,000 films have been digitised, but the same number again are on decaying or unstable formats, unable to be digitised by our present scanning equipment. Without intervention, Scotland's film heritage will remain inaccessible or – worse still – be lost forever.

With your help, we want to change that. Join us in opening up Scotland's film archive.  

To find out more, ands to makea donation, please visit https://auth.nls.uk/support-us/ways-to-give/appeal/ 

(With thanks to the NLS via post) 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, 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. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.