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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine issues associated with user engagement on social media with local history in the North East of Scotland and to focus on a case study of the Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Society, a small but very successful and professionally-run community-based local heritage organisation.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach using photo elicitation on social media was deployed in conjunction with analysis of the user interactions and the reach insights provided by Facebook to the page manager. Additionally, a focus group was used.Findings The research, although focussed on an individual case study, offers significant lessons which are more widely applicable in the local history and cultural heritage social media domain. Key aspects include user engagement and how digital storytelling can assist in the documentation of local communities ultimately contributing to local history research and the broader cultural memory. The significance of the image and the photo elicitation methodology is also explored.Social implications The research demonstrates new opportunities for engaging users and displaying historical content that can be successfully exploited by community heritage organisations. These are themes which will be developed within the paper. The research also demonstrates the value of photo elicitation in both historical and wider information science fields as a means of obtaining in-depth quality engagement and interaction with users and communities.Originality/value The research explored the underutilised method of photo elicitation in a local history context with a community possessed of a strong sense of local identity. In addition to exploring the benefits of this method, it presents transferable lessons for how small, community-based history and heritage organisation can engage effectively with their audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report on a research designed to find out how people in Scotland access and use online health information. Design/methodology/approach - It is based on a survey of two sets of population in Glasgow - a group of 64 users from the general public and a group of 24 post graduate students from a university in Glasgow. Findings - Use of the Internet for health information was found to be much lower in Scotland than in the previous UK studies particularly those using online surveys. It was noted that people searched online health information for themselves, family and friends. Healthy eating, exercise and alternative medicine were the most commonly sought topics. Approximately half the survey participants felt online health information influenced their treatment. Originality/value - The study incorporates both Internet users and non-users, as well as proficient internet users, and therefore provides a more balanced view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]