The INternational & Scottish Poetry Information REsource (INSPIRE) is the online public access catalogue and subject indexing system developed for the Scottish Poetry Library.

INSPIRE is an online catalogue which has been specifically designed for the SPL's collection of Scottish and international verse titles, criticism and background material. Scottish Poetry Library holdings also include news cuttings, audio and video recordings, periodicals, and many individual poem titles - some 50,000 records in all.

The potential of our database for researchers is constantly expanding: the subject authority file currently lists many thousands of terms, reflecting the almost unlimited subject matter of poetic inspiration, from artistic, social or intellectual themes to environmental or scientific ones.

INSPIRE encompasses the data of our ongoing index to selected Scottish poetry periodicals, the Scottish Poetry Index. The nature of this indexing means that INSPIRE contains many unique name authorities and provides access to information on poems unavailable in published collections.

INSPIRE has been designed and is maintained by Gordon Dunsire, CDLR, and Penny Robertson and Stephen Winch, SLAINTE, in co-operation with staff of the Scottish Poetry Library.