Widening Digital Access to Cultural Collections at Leeds

Archival material is being made accessible beyond the University through the use of specialist visualiser equipment in the Special Collections John Bedford Room. Recent events included a hybrid event to celebrate the life of the author Peter Robinson, at which online audiences were able to encounter material from Robinson’s archive in close detail, and the meeting of the Northern Jewish Studies Network, which Eva Frojmovic attended remotely from the Bedford Room in order to share material from the Roth Collection.  

The visualiser also allows the team to offer remote viewing appointments to researchers who are unable to visit the collections to view materials in person, making the University of Leeds Libraries material archival collections more discoverable internationally. Researchers who wish to find out more about using the visualiser technology for events using special collections material, or remote access to materials, can contact the Visitor Services and Teaching Support Team: specialcollections@library.leeds.ac.uk.