A classic, enchanting document of Scottish folklore about fairies, elves, and other supernatural creatures. Late in the seventeenth century, Robert Kirk, an Episcopalian minister in the Scottish Highlands, set out to collect his parishioners’ many striking stories about elves, fairies, fauns, doppelgängers, wraiths, and other beings of, in Kirk’s words, “a middle nature betwixt man and angel.” For Kirk these stories constituted strong evidence for the reality of a supernatural world, existing parallel to ours, which, he passionately believed, demanded exploration as much as the New World across the seas. Kirk defended these views in The Secret Commonwealth, an essay that was left in manuscript when he died in 1692. It is a rare and fascinating work, an extraordinary amalgam of science, religion, and folklore, suffused with the spirit of active curiosity and bemused wonder that fills Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy and the works of Sir Thomas Browne. The Secret Commonwealth is not only a remarkable document in the history of ideas but a study of enchantment that enchants in its own right. First published in 1815 by Sir Walter Scott, then reedited in 1893 by Andrew Lang, with a dedication to Robert Louis Stevenson, The Secret Commonwealth has long been difficult to obtain—available, if at all, only in scholarly editions. This new edition modernizes the spelling and punctuation of Kirk’s little book and features a wide-ranging and illuminating introduction by the critic and historian Marina Warner, who brings out the originality of Kirk’s contribution and reflects on the ongoing life of fairies in the modern mind.

This is the first practical guide to cover the various stages of a history research project, from the selection of the topic and the organization and interpretation of source material, through to the completion of the written-up record.Whether it is for a dissertation, thesis article or, indeed, full-length book, Historical Research deals with the purpose of research, and the implications, limitations and benefits of different research methods, as well as the effective presentation of the finished result.

`The definitive guide to Scottish websites.`Scotland`s New HomebuyerThis comprehensive and easy-to-use directory provides a one-stop guide to essential addresses on the Internet from a Scottish perspective. The Scottish Web Directory, offers a selection of over 10,000 official sites, top 'household names' and sites of interest to Scottish families, business users, and anyone interested in ScotlandConveniently classified by category, the directory enables both begineers and experienced users alike to find elusive web addresses with ease, saving hours of fruitless searching and surfing on the Internet.Categories include:Arts & EntertainmentBusinessChildrenEducation, Training & ResearchFood & DrinkGovernmentHobbies & LeisureLivingMuseums, Libraries & InformationPersonal FinanceShoppingSportTechnologyTravel

Listing over 10,000 entries, Harrod's Librarians' Glossary and Reference Book spans everything from traditional printing terms to search engines and from book formats to URLs. Revisions for this tenth edition have centred in particular on the Information Society and its ramifications, on the general shift towards electronic resources, and on e-commerce, e-learning and e-government, whilst at the same time maintaining key areas predating the IT revolution. Web terminology, URLs and IT terms have been checked and updated, and coverage of terms relating to digitization and digital resources, portals, multimedia and electronic products has been revised or expanded as necessary. Harrod's Glossary now includes Knowledge Management terms, and this edition has also focused on developments in the field of intellectual property, copyright, patents, privacy and piracy. It gives wide international coverage of names, addresses and URLs of major libraries and other important organizations in the information sector, of professional associations, fellowships, networks, government bodies, projects and programmes, consortia and institutions, influential reports and other key publications. Entries are included on classification and file coding, on records management and archiving and on both the latest and the most enduring aspects of library and information skills. Even with the Web at your fingertips Harrod's Librarians' Glossary and Reference Book remains a quicker reference for explaining specialist terms, jargon and acronyms, and for finding the URLs you need, whether you are working in a print-based or digital library, in archiving, records management, conservation, bookselling or publishing.