Library Services has been granted funding through the Research Capital Infrastructure Fund to establish the Centre for Digital Collections. The Centre will act as a hub for the digitisation of archives and special collections, as well as the transfer of born digital material, and the preservation of digital records.
- Digitisation and digital transfer studio, more details below.
- Digital Asset Management System for the description, discovery and access to/of collections, and the curation of virtual exhibitions. The system will provide tools to engage directly with materials, including streaming video content, rotating and zooming on 3D objects, and flipping and zooming pages in multi-page documents.
- Preservation capability – to manage the long-term storage and access to digital collections and ensure that file formats are monitored over time.
- New role of Digital Asset Specialist – who will support digitisation and ingest projects, as well as providing training and guidance on the use of equipment, current advice on good file formats for preservation work.
- Virtual exhibition capability including curation and captioning of exhibits, linking out and embedded media, options to engage in a more in-depth way with material.
A key deliverable for the Centre for Digital Collections is the creation of a digitisation and digital transfer studio. This will be built in G.44, currently known as the Teaching Collection space, at the Mile End Library. The studio will house two state of the art digitisation units, able to handle a range of items from 2D documents to 3D objects.
More than purely a place to create and store digital material, the Centre will act as research, learning and engagement space, both virtually and physically, providing opportunities to explore our collections, engage with them in different ways, and create new objects inspired by the originals.
The project is taking place between June 2024 – December 2025. Library users are likely to experience minor disruption during the building work phase of the project, which is set to take place May – August 2025.
While we aim to minimise disruption, there will be periods of increased noise and activity, however the location of the digitisation studio is discreet, and we hope this minimises impact on library users. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to deliver this exciting new service.
As the building works will be taking place primarily over the vacation period, the Mile End library will have a variety of alternative study spaces available. Library users, both staff and students, are able to visit our other library sites and library managed spaces.
We understand the importance of keeping our Library users and stakeholders informed about the progress and impact of these works.
To ensure you have the latest information:
Monthly newsletter: Read the Library Update monthly for progress updates and important milestones.
Social media: Follow our Instagram channel for monthly updates highlighting key achievements and any expected disruptions:
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Project Lead, Sarah Molloy s.molloy@qmul.ac.uk or library@qmul.ac.uk.
The Centre will be led and managed by Archives and Special Collections, working in collaboration with researchers across the university, with a particular focus in the Humanities, as well as the Centre for Arts, Culture and Creative Collaboration, and the Civic Engagement Team.