Alan Dawson February 2007 The Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) was formed in March 1889, with the aim to: "encourage mountaineering in Scotland in winter as well as summer; to serve as a bond of union amongst all lovers of mountain climbing; to create facilities for exploring the less known parts of the country; to collect various kinds of information, especially as regards routes, distances, means of access, time occupied in ascents, character of rocks, extent of snow in winter, etc., and in general to promote everything that will conduce to the convenience of those who take a pleasure in mountains and mountain scenery." The printed journal Soon after its formation, the Club began publishing the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, following the successful model of the Alpine Journal, published by the Alpine Club. Early issues of the SMC Journal document an exciting period in exploration of the Scottish highlands and other areas, containing the first recorded descriptions of numerous Scottish hills, along with articles on geology, photography, deer forests, weather, aesthetics, physiology, equipment, and expeditions abroad. Copies of early issues of the printed journal are now scarce and difficult to access. Digitisation of the first six volumes (36 issues) of the SMC Journal has been carried out at the Centre for Digital Library Research, Strathclyde University, in agreement with the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, in order to make the content far more widely available. Particular thanks are due to the late Rob Milne, who was instrumental in securing the funding for this project. The electronic journal The digital version of the journal was created at the Centre for Digital Library Research , University of Strathclyde, as part of research into automated creation and indexing of electronic books and journals. The structure and order of the digitised version of the journal is exactly as in the printed volumes, and the text has been retained exactly as it appeared in the printed volumes, with all the original spellings, place names, accents and italics. However, numerous headings have been changed from upper case to title case or lower case, and some headings that were embedded in the text have been emphasised, in order to make the digital text more usable. The only significant variations from the printed journals occur in the indexes. An index does appear in each printed volume, covering six issues, but these have been aggregated into a cumulative digital index covering all 36 issues, which is more useful than reproducing each volume index separately. References to page numbers have been converted to live links to the relevant section of individual issues. Furthermore, each index entry has been assigned to one of several categories, such as events, hills and mountains, places, and topics. Additional cumulative indexes have been created, covering articles, authors and illustrations. The digital indexes therefore provide valuable additional indication of the content of the journal as a whole, as well as an alternative method of browsing it. A small number of additional index entries have been added, to help highlight topics likely to be of current or historical interest.