Activities
The Commission is based in Edinburgh where it has a huge selection of photographs and drawings for consultation. It also publishes a range of books and documents on Scottish architecture and archaeology. Increasingly study has also been conducted of previously neglected industrial and agricultural constructions, as well as 20th century buildings, including high-rise tower blocks.
RCAHMS maintains a database/archive of the sites, monuments and buildings of Scotland's past; while at one time known as the National Monuments Record of Scotland (NMRS), no differentiation is now apparent in RCAHMS publications or on the organisation's website. A growing proportion of RCAHMS's own survey material and material deposited in the archive by others is now available through online databases such as Canmore.
Since 1976 RCAHMS has conducted intensive aerial survey of archaeological sites, buildings, landscapes and natural features. In addition to its holdings of its own (mainly oblique) aerial photographs, it holds the National Collection of Aerial Photography which is one of the largest and most important aerial imagery collections in the world. It contains over 1.8 million aerial photographs of Scotland including large numbers of Royal Air Force oblique and vertical aerial photographs taken of Scotland during and in the years after the Second World War, as well as post-war Ordnance Survey, local and national government, and commercial vertical aerial photographs. RCAHMS also holds over 10 million images of international sites as part of The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA).
The RCAHMS in conjunction with Historic Scotland hosts a map-based GIS portal called PASTMAP. This allows Historic Scotland, NMRS, Scottish Natural Heritage and some Local Authority Sites and Monuments data sets to be viewed together.
Other online resources include Scran, now managed by RCAHMS, which is a UK charity with a learning image service of over 367,000 images, clip art, movies and sounds from museums, galleries, archives and the media. Scotland's Places is a partnership website giving searchable access to the collections of RCAHMS, the National Records of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland.
RCAHMS was one of the first national collections in Scotland to embed social media into its online services, enabling user generated images and information to be added to the national database Canmore. An outreach programme includes publications, exhibitions, induction and training sessions for students and other groups, and a series of free lunchtime lectures, as well as daily Facebook and Twitter feeds.
Read more about this topic: Royal Commission On The Ancient And Historical Monuments Of Scotland
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—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)