The UDC Hub was developed by RLUK as part of our aim to support collections, wherever they are held. It is a free online resource for collection managers and practitioners to share the latest innovations, insights, case studies and best practice for unique and distinctive collections (UDCs).
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University of Leeds – Exhibition drew on University’s First World War archive for inspiration
An exhibition at the University of Leeds demonstrated the First World War’s continuing influence on 21st century creativity. Visual artist Juliet MacDonald had spent months working with material in the University’s unrivalled Liddle Collection of letters, photos and memorabilia relating to [...]
Encouraging schools to engage with archives
This workshop took place at the DCDC14 Conference and was delivered by Sarah Price, Head of Heritage Collections Engagement Team at Durham University Library. One of the greatest challenges in encouraging users to discover and use archives is that people [...]
Out of context: bringing a manuscript collection to a broader audience
In 2012, a partnership between the University of Birmingham’s Cadbury Research Library and Birmingham Museums Trust developed into an exhibition on calligraphy in Arabic script. Of the 33,000 visitors over 12 weeks, an in-gallery survey suggested that around 60% identified [...]
Melbourne University students somewhere in France
The University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) is one of the largest non-government collecting archives in Australia. In 2012 we began a teaching and student engagement programme which sought to bring our collections into the classroom and support the University of [...]
Britain from Above: User engagement between the digital and ‘real’ world
This paper gives an overview of the engagement programme of Britain from Above, a partnership project aimed at conserving and making freely available the first 95,000 images of the Aerofilms collection of historic aerial photographs, which ended in November 2014. [...]
If we build it they will come: collaborative development of born-digital archives
In many ways, enabling the discovery of born-digital archive materials should be easy. The material is already digital, and quite often in a format that is accessible by others. There are many ways in which content can be delivered over [...]
Sharing the forgotten histories of South Asians in Britain
Many people believe that the story of South Asian migration to Britain begins after the Second World War though in fact it traces its origins to the founding of the East India Company in 1600. Making Britain: South Asian Visions [...]
Lighting the past
In 2011, John MacColl, University Librarian, organised and challenged a new working group to address the enormous backlog of uncatalogued early printed and rare books held by the University of St Andrews. At the time, the Rare Book Collection, numbering [...]
The Agnew’s Archive: collecting the history of collecting
This paper will examine the collaborations that have arisen from the National Gallery’s recent purchase of the archive of Thos. Agnew & Sons. Beginning with an overview of the development of a research strategy at the National Gallery and the [...]