This document discusses creating and curating cultural assets for the future of urban areas in Scotland. It addresses several topics: 1) The importance of cultural assets in enriching society through knowledge exchange and promoting awareness of different cultures. 2) Several Scottish cultural institutions and the agendas of freedom of information, equal opportunities, sustainability, and open data/access. 3) Issues with the National Records of Scotland, which charges fees to access public records that have been digitized, unlike practices in other countries. 4) Recommendations to the Scottish government to improve access to official documents, listings of cultural organizations, planning information, and opportunities for youth.

1. Creating and Curating Assets
for the Future of the Urban Past
Richard Rodger

2. Data Collection, Dissemination
1. Key cultural assets; enriches society through
knowledge exchange
2. Contribution to civil and civilised society through
awareness of ‘the other’
3. Critical element in policy and decision-making
through information, statistics, spatial information
4. Dissemination and Discussion feeds back into civil
society

3. Agendas: Data
• Freedom of Information
• Equal Opportunities
• Sustainability
• Open Data / Open Access X

4. Scottish
Cultural
Institutions

11. • The English Trap
• Arts Council and English
Heritage – Lists

12. Which National Body receives over £7m in fees
from the public?
Which National Body makes you pay to consult
its public documents?
Which National Body is never mentioned in the
recent “Culture Strategy for Scotland”

13. 61 pages

14. Textual
References
Number of
Occurrences
Drama 1
Theatre 4
Film 6
Libraries 7
Dance 10
Art 47
Records 0
Archives 0
Tourism 14
Economy/Economic 55

16. NRS:
What is
there to
hide?

18. Agendas: Data
• Freedom of Information
• Equal Opportunities
• Sustainability
• Open Data / Open Access

19. In France “. access to all records is free. It seems
incredible that you have to pay to see what is a
common good (records).”
“…Today, many departmental archives (not all) have
digitized these census and you may consult them
from your home (sometimes only from the computers
of the reading room).”
“As far as I know, there has never been any problem
to use these documents.”

20. • In Scotland In the National Records of Scotland
you have to pay £15 per day…..
even though
All census records are already digitised.
So …you can find someone you want. Quickly.

23. https://www.dcthomson.co.uk/vacancies/operations-manager-engineering/

24. Scotland’s People !!!!
Scottish people DESERVE BETTER

25. Memo to SG, NS, and FH - URGENT
1. ALL official documents (especially Council
documents) to be available as →.csv, .xlsx, .txt or .docx
to facilitate general public access.
Appoint Ombudsperson to oversee standardisation.
2. Comprehensive list of all museums and galleries,
with locations (not postcodes) to assist smaller towns,
3. Councils’ planning sites to obtain/develop a tool for
IDOX software which shows planning proposals within a
given radius eg 800 metres. Empowerment
4. Entitlement card: let’s do stuff for the under 19s!!
How is empowerment possible without these?

26. Entitlement Card: let’s do stuff for the under 19s!!