The number of staff in the Tobar an Dualchais team has risen to twenty-two, with several new appointments since the last newsletter in April.

The Edinburgh office is now fully staffed. Mairi Black, Colin Gateley, Stuart Robinson and Jenny Booth have all recently taken up posts there.

Mairi has been appointed as a part-time administrative assistant and is a fluent Gaelic speaker from North Uist. She has a keen interest in Gaelic arts and music and has been a fèis tutor in shinty and drama. Colin is senior digitiser for the project and has a solid background in audio technology. He recently completed an MSc in Sound Design and has worked at the National Museums of Scotland. Stuart has taken up post as a digitiser and previously worked in IT support. He also has experience of working in an audio engineering environment. Jenny Booth has been appointed as a data editor and prior to joining the team worked at Strathclyde University as a teaching and learning technology adviser. She is a fluent Gaelic speaker with a strong interest in Gaelic music.    

A team of Scots cataloguers has also started working on the project on a part-time basis. They are Steve Byrne, Dr Caroline Macafee and Irene Wotherspoon.

Fiona MacKinnon, administrator for the Tobar an Dualchais team on Skye has been seconded to work as a copyright assistant for one year, and will have responsibility for obtaining copyright permissions for the BBC sound recordings.  We wish her well in her new role. Christine MacKenzie from the Isle of Lewis has been appointed to replace Fiona while she is on secondment. Christine is a fluent Gaelic speaker with a degree in Politics and Sociology and a background in retail.

An updated technical plan has been approved. Advances in technology have led to enhancements in the project, including higher sampling rates. If you would like more detailed information about the technical plan, please contact Kenny Beaton, Technical Manager. (Tel: 0131 650 4157 or e-mail sm00kb@uhi.ac.uk)

Tobar an Dualchais will be attending the Mòd again this year. In addition to publicising the project we’re also hoping that people attending may be able to assist us in tracing some of the contributors. If you’re going to be at the Mòd, please come and visit us

We hope to appoint another digitiser for the South Uist office very soon and we will be advertising for additional Gaelic cataloguers in the Autumn.