in books with a Scottish interest. It later took over the titles of Aberdeen University Press when that company became insolvent. By 2007, Mercat Press had over 200 titles in its list, these being predominantly works on architecture and heritage as well as guides books and general fiction, the latter category including the novels of crime writer Gillian Galbraith. Technology James Thin Ltd was a pioneer in technology and automation. In the mid 1960s, it implemented a computerised stock control system which it claimed was the first of its kind for a UK bookshop. In the 1980s, Ainslie Thin developed a version of the system in dBASE III to run on personal computers within 26 of the shops. In 1998, the company started selling books on line, making it what at the time was described as "the biggest on-line bookseller in the world". It was also the first bookseller to use the Whitaker TeleOrdering system Decline and administration James Thin Ltd.'s annual turnover remained at about £35 million throughout the 1990s, but then declined rapidly. For the year to 31 January 2001, the firm reported a pre-tax loss of £116,000 on sales of £26.8 million. In January 2002, it went into voluntary administration, with debts of £5 million. Jackie Thin, the managing director, blamed the collapse on increased competition, falling turnover and the cost of closing loss-making shops. According to press comments, the rapid expansion into England and in particular the acquisition of Volume One were major factors in the chain's failure. PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed as administrator to run the chain and realise its assets. It immediately made 60 staff redundant at the head office and in 28 of the branches. It then announced that it expected to sell the entire business, having received ten approaches from prospective buyers. In March 2002, Ottakar's purchased eight of the company's general bookstores for £1.64 million, with no redundancies expected. These shops had a combined annual turnover of £10.1 million. Ottakar's was itself taken over by Waterstones in 2006. In April 2002, Blackwell UK announced the purchase of Thin's twelve academic bookshops for "in excess of" £2 million, with all of the 102 staff retaining their jobs. The purchase included branches at St Andrews University, the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, and Napier University as well as the South Bridge shop and stores at six other sites. Between them, these branches had an