This is blog written by Stephen Thomas. It has come to the point where we here at West Lothian Council Archive could not, nay dared not, ignore the growing wave of new and exciting ways to put oneself about. These so called Social Media Sites; where information about this and that can be Uploaded to be Downloaded to be Embedded, Shared, Edited, Trolled, Commented upon, Torrented and Uploaded again in the time it takes someone of my technological knowledge to work out how to attach a file to an email.
Bearing those limitations in mind we approached, with some trepidation, the bright and shiny new worlds of Twitter, Blogger, Twitpic, Flickr, YFrog, Hootsuite and Facebook. I am man enough to admit that there were tears, oh yes. Frustrations, rending of hair, slack jawed incomprehension and even the odd curse upon the Gods of technology and all their devious ways.
But as you are no doubt aware people who work in archives are patience and perseverance personified; they will happily wait for moss to grow on a stone so as to have a comfy seat. So, given time and restorative cups that cheer, the new media mountain was climbed and conquered.
Here are the fruits of our labour:
http://wlarchive.blogspot.com/
News, views, happenings and upcoming events. The blog is still very much in its infancy and not updated as regularly as one would like, but it’s getting there.
Various twitterings about projects as they happen.
Tweets as if from Councillor Alexander Smith, the Poor Law Inspector for the Parish of West Calder around 1896. Some license is used in regard to his thoughts on matters, but the information regarding names, dates and outcomes are all accurate.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64453447@N08/
Our Flickr site where we upload pictures from projects and other more leftfield images taken around the archive.
We also have a Facebook page; just search for the group West Lothian Council Archive.
Coming Soon – The blog of Private Peter Jack of Blackridge of the Lanarkshire Yeomanary charting a tour of duty from 1915-1916 which took him firstly to the Gallipoli Penninsula and later to Egypt.
