What is Scran?
Scran aims to provide educational access to digital materials representing our material culture and history. We host images, movies and sounds from museums, galleries, archives and the media and we are one of the largest educational online services in the UK supporting thousands of schools, libraries, colleges and universities.
We work in partnership with over 300 cultural institutions in Scotland and the rest of the UK. A number of institutions use our online solution - Scran-in-a-Box - to provide access to their own data. Scran is funded through grant aid from the Scottish Government, subscriptions and sales of services.
Our History
Scran was conceived in 1995 and The Scran Trust - a registered charity - was formed shortly after. Its founding partners were The National Museums Scotland, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, the former Scottish Museums Council, now Museums Galleries Scotland and, by invitation, the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum.
Scran is now a service of the Scottish charity Historic Environment Scotland.
In its first five years, it engaged in a wide ranging scheme of grant awards which allowed cultural organisations to digitise parts of their collections to be made available for educational purposes. This was Millennium Commission funded through the UK Lottery. It developed an advanced licensing system which was commended by many in which the institution retained ownership of the digitised assets but made these available under licence to Scran. There followed further large grant aid partner projects with NOF Digitise funding through the National Library of Scotland.
Over the years Scran has received awards including: Silver MUSE from the American Association of Museums (AAM), 'In recognition of the Highest Standards of Excellence in the use of Media and Technology…'. The ‘Jason Farradane’ award of the Institute of Information Scientists as "an outstanding piece of work in the Information Field". Scran was also listed as one of the top ten NGfL sites in the BECTa/Guardian Awards, one of the Top Ten Online Museums in the world by The Guardian newspaper, Scottish Museum of the Year award for multimedia, British Archaeological Society / Channel 4 award for multimedia.
Technical Details
- Controlling Cookies - How to set your Browser's use of Cookies.
Logos & Search Box
- Scran logos and graphics - Scran graphics for you to download. Credit Scran and meet copyright licence requirements when using Scran in digital or paper resources. The logo is our registered trademark and you must seek our prior permission for any other use.
- Scran Search Box - Get a Scran Search box for your own web page.
Volunteers
Scran welcomes volunteers who have an interest in culture, heritage and history. At present we have no volunteering opportunities.
Registrations
Historic Environment Scotland is a statutory incorporation established by the Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014 and a registered charity (Scottish Charity number SC045925) having its principal office at Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH; Scran Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Historic Environment Scotland with company No.SC163518. All registrations are in Scotland. Registered Office for Scran Ltd: 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 9NX. Group VAT No: 682772107. Scran and the Logo are registered trademarks.
Testimonials
Sponsors