Volunteer helping keep Highland history resource hailed for efforts during coronavirus pandemic
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A volunteer has been praised for his work in helping to keep a popular Highland history resource going through the coronavirus pandemic.
Iain Fraser (80) has used his considerable local knowledge to support the Am Baile digital archive team in identifying a range of people and places in photographs that were taken in and around Inverness throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Mr Fraser has dementia and says that the opportunity to volunteer with High Life Highland and help out at the Highland Archive Centre, which it is responsible for, has helped to give him a much-valued new lease of life.
Mr Fraser said: “It means so much to me to have been accepted and made so welcome by Jamie and the other staff at the Highland Archive Centre.
“Volunteering has given me a new sense of purpose, is helping with treatment for dementia and I’m delighted that my experiences in life are useful to others.”
He added: “Stories and memories are so important.”
Jamie Gaukroger, Am Baile co-ordinator at High Life Highland, said the whole team was delighted to have Mr Fraser and other volunteers on board.
“Iain’s knowledge of the people and places around Inverness has been an enormous help as we catalogue photographs from past decades,” he said.
“Iain started volunteering with us last October and has been concentrating on Am Baile since early February this year.
“Iain’s family have said they noticed a big difference in him since he started volunteering and people supporting Iain in the health profession see it as a really positive way to help with managing his dementia.”
He added: “Iain is one of several volunteers supporting the website and we always have room for more!”
Am Baile was founded in 2000, creating a digital archive spanning the vast history and culture of the whole Highlands and Islands area.
Since then, thousands of items from a wide range of archives, libraries, museums and private collections have been digitised and are saved on the online site.
New material continues to be added all the time.
The Highland Archive Service is responsible for collecting, preserving, and making accessible, archives relating to the history of the Highlands.
The archive collections at the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness date from the 14th century to the present day.
They cover a geographic spread encompassing the counties of Inverness, Nairn, Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland.
You can find out more about their resources and how to access them online at https://www.highlifehighland.com/highland-archive-centre/
If you are interested in volunteering with Highland Archive Centre you can email them at archives@highlifehighland.com.
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