It’s very tempting to go to Google, but the Library has access to several major resource collections which come with the assurance that the material is cleared for educational use.

One of these resources is SCRAN, which is part of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, and as its parentage suggests majors on material relating to Scotland. That said however, for us down here on the south-eastern tip of the British Isles, their collection goes far wider, with material also drawn from major UK collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum and British Museum.

In addition to offering a search for specific images, video and audio, the site provides pre-selected material on a range of topics grouped into ‘Pathfinder Packs’.

My favourite images from SCRAN are a linocut by Cyril Power from 1929 (try a search for “Russell Square”) and pictures of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Scotland Street School in Glasgow. The school is less well known that Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, but worth a visit both as an example of the architect’s work and as a museum of Scottish education from the late 19th to the 20th centuries.

Access SCRAN from this web page (then to ‘Mixed media collections’).