We are proud to have worked with the Banffshire Field Club on the digitisation of its published Transactions to create searchable online documents and to have designed its website to allow access to these and other Club resources. There is a wealth of knowledge in the Banffshire Field Club's archive, and in its current committee and members. Almost 140 years on from the Club's foundation, the new website and discussion forum is an exciting development to encourage people to engage with the fascinating history of Banffshire. "When the Banffshire Field Club decided to digitise 6000 pages of talks
given between 1880 and 1940 and make them available free of charge on a
new and much more sophisticated website which would also include many
other features, we did not know where to begin. None of us had anything
approaching the skills required to get close to producing the quality
and range of features we aspired to. On asking the Special Collections
section of Aberdeen University Library for recommendations for companies
which specialised in digitisation of heritage documentation and
production of websites for heritage organisations, they suggested we
approach the husband and wife team of Niall and Jacqueline Irvine who
run Perspectives in Slains, just north of Aberdeen. We did so, and
this proved to be the best decision we could have made.
The task of digitisation, including an element of proof reading and OCR, proved
monumental, but was completed by Jacqueline more quickly and accurately
than we could have hoped, while Niall constructed a complex but simple
to manage website, tailored to our requirements. This allows the BFC
team to manage a website which has a great deal of varied information
available, together with a number of interactive features. Most of the
discussion over the website was with Niall, and he went beyond our
original concept by suggesting a variety of additional features and
enhancements to those we had originally requested. In every case his
suggestions improved the quality of our website.
The BFC has ended up with a website including digitised historic
documents which is far superior to that which we initially envisaged.
This is entirely due to the expertise and professionalism of
Perspectives proprietors Niall and Jacqueline, but also due to their
warm personal qualities and friendly support. They were on our side in
many ways which could not be prescribed in our contract. Finally, and
importantly, the invoice they sent was moderate in the extreme. If in
future we have any other requirements across the full width of the IT
field we will go back to Jacqueline and Niall, without hesitation or
reservation".
John Aitken
Banffshire Field Club Vice-Convener and Chair of the Publications Sub-committee
View the Banffshire website here.
