Promoting Scots - Scots Language Resource Centre
The SLRC aims to be a link organisation offering independent information about the Scots language, publications and events, as well as individuals and organisations working in the field of Scots.
The Scots Language Resource Centre (SLRC) was founded in 1991 and since then has been based in an office in the A K Bell Library Perth, courtesy of Perth and Kinross Council, which, together with the then Scottish Office, was one of the SLRC's original funding bodies. It now receives funding from the Scottish Arts Council.
The idea for a resource centre dedicated to the dissemination of information about Scots originally came from the Scots Language Society, the organisation which publishes the 'Lallans' magazine for writing in Scots.
The SLRC is staffed by a full-time administrator and a part-time manager consultant. It is open Monday to Friday for telephone and e-mail enquiries. Visits can also be made by arrangement. The SLRC has a collection of texts in and about Scots which is part of the A K Bell Library's reference section and is available for the public to consult during normal library opening hours.
Although not an archive or an exhaustive collection, the SLRC does have an up-to-date collection of print materials about and in Scots, and teachers considering buying materials for class use could benefit from arranging to visit the centre to get ideas and preview texts.
A lot of the SLRC's work now takes place through its very good website, which is regularly updated. It is probably the best online source of up-to-date news and events related to Scots and it is possible to subscribe to e-mail newsletters from the website. The Mercat section contains information about a growing number of recent and currently in print publications related to Scots.
The SLRC has itself produced 'Scotspeak', a publication which although an academic analysis of urban Scots pronunciation, may be of use to teachers for its accompanying CD, which contains lively samples of different Scots speakers and accents ranging from Aberdeen to Glasgow.
Links
- Scots Language Resource Centre
The SLRC website contains up-to-date news about forthcoming events and new publications related to Scots.