Collecting Broadband: the social context for the e-Scotland collection

Abstract

• This is a summary of a project begun last year to collect objects to represent the spread of broadband across Scotland. Given the impact of the internet on all our lives, this collection can be interpreted from a social historical perspective as much as from a technological one. It also provides an opportunity to strengthen the links between science and technology collections and social history ones as it is vital to view communications collections in a context of use (of course the same is equally true of other technology collections). Here the focus is specifically on remote and rural communities in the Highlands and Islands and Borders of Scotland. The reasons for this focus are ones of geography which present specific issues in Scotland, though apply in some measure to other areas such as Cornwall for example, where there are similar issues facing remote populations and a comparable need to attract new employment opportunities.