This email from John Barrow. I have signed the petition:-

Petition to Preserve the School of Scottish Studies Archive

Hi

This link - http://www.traditionalmusicforum.org/category/blog/- takes you to a more detailed discussion of why there's a petition being raised under the heading "Preserve the School of Scottish Studies: Change.org petition" (see below).

The School of Scottish Studies in the University of Edinburgh is a world renowned teaching and research institution which has been at the heart of studying, recording, analysing, discussing Scottish traditional culture in its myriad facets for the past 60 years or so.

I received this message (below) earlier today and I am now circulating it as widely as possible to my email circulation list for, what I hope are, obvious reasons ...

Preserve the School of Scottish Studies: Change.org petition

Students and Academics at Edinburgh University are greatly concerned by proposals to carve up the School of Scottish Studies, an internationally respected beacon for Scotland's culture, by separating the world famous archive collection from its associated libraries and from ongoing teaching and research. A student campaign is under way to convince the University and the public that the School of Scottish Studies resources must remain intact and accessible to researchers, ethnologists and to the wider public.

A student spokesperson for the campaign, said: "We see no justification for separating them and thus threatening 60 years of innovative scholarship in the field of Scottish Ethnology and Folklore. The continuing record of the Scottish people contained within the Archives, which features prominently in many taught courses and wider research projects, is at stake. We request that the University allows the staff, students and resources of the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies to remain complete and united in one building".

We are now inviting the public to support our campaign. We urge Edinburgh University to listen to the consistent and unanimous opinion of this student body, and ask you, the public to join in our determination to protect the School of Scottish Studies resources for us, for scholars of the future and for all of the people of Scotland.
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It all seems to me like a cause for concern and a reason for signing the petition!


Cheers

jb