
The Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs) Toolkit is a resource for all collection-holding institutions, including libraries, archives, and museums, which are interested in setting up a VRR consultation service or are at the early stages of VRR development.
VRRs constituted part of the emergency response of libraries and archives to the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Through VRRs, many institutions were able to provide geographically remote access to collections and learning materials to a worldwide audience.
Since then, VRRs have increasingly been integrated into the existing service offering of institutions as a way of ensuring their sustainability and further development. Moreover, libraries and archives are becoming more aware of the potential of VRRs to make different types of collections accessible to a variety of audience groups.
In October 2022, RLUK in collaboration with its partners, held an international sprint relay symposium on ‘Creating a community-driven toolkit for the development and delivery of Virtual Reading Room services’. This community-driven toolkit constitutes the collaborative output of the symposium and it is based on intelligence gathered through talks, discussions, and interactive sessions where delegates shared their experiences in developing and running VRRs for the benefit of the sector.
Jump to a section:
How do we define Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs)?
Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs) provide human-mediated remote digital access to collections which do not depend on digitisation.
Through the use of live streaming via hi-res visualisers positioned within physical research spaces, scholars, teachers or members of the public can view and digitally engage with an institution’s heritage and cultural collections, asking for these to be positioned and repositioned by a member of staff, to enable their research.
These are emerging and bespoke services which provide another means of user-responsive access to non-digitised collection materials.

Context of their creation
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, research libraries and cultural institutions around the world have invested in ceiling-mounted and desktop visualisers to enable the creation of virtual reading rooms and classrooms.
Although a number of VRR services did exist before Covid-19, the vast majority have emerged in response to the pandemic and the experience of lockdowns, partial reopenings, and ongoing disruption of movement.
RLUK has been charting the development of these services since late 2020 and has published three reports and a series of case studies on the RLUK website.
VRR services are geographically diverse: UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Although we identified a significant number of institutions that have developed or aiming to develop VRRs services, it is believed that there are more of these services elsewhere.
Methodology of creating this toolkit
This VRR community-driven toolkit was developed during an international symposium which spanned the globe through a series of three connected, sequential, and iterative seminars that took place in the Australia/ New Zealand, UK/ Europe, and US/ Canada regions.
Talks, discussions, and intelligence gathered through interactive breakout sessions and other elements (Mentimeter and Google Jamboards) directly informed and shaped the contents of a practical toolkit for the development and delivery of Virtual Reading Room services amongst collection-holding institutions.
The structure of this toolkit was based on the work of the Frameworks and Standards sub-group of the IARLA VRR working group. Please consult this toolkit alongside the resources found in the References and Useful Links section.
The IARLA working group
The International Alliance of Research Library Associations (IARLA) has convened a cross-sector working group to explore the development and delivery of Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs) and Virtual Teaching Spaces (VTSs). The working group includes representatives of IARLA members, key stakeholder bodies and organisations, and members of the wider heritage/ cultural communities.
The purpose of the working group was to explore the international collaborative opportunities presented by the development and delivery of VRRs and VTSs amongst research libraries and other collection-holding institutions. In particular, the role of the working group was to:
Its subgroups were: Frameworks and Standards (inc. definitions) group; Resourcing and Sustainability group; Survey and Data Gathering group; Case Study Collation and Editorial group; Symposium Planning group.
Members of the following organisations participate at the IARLA VRR working group:
Association of Research Libraries (ARL) – Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) – Research Libraries UK (RLUK)
The National Archives, UK – The British Library – Jisc – OCLC Research Library Partnership
Applications and motivations
Why create a Virtual Reading Room service?
According to the most recent RLUK report looking at the institutional perspectives around the development of VRRs and VTSs (Kamposiori, 2022, p. 12), the majority of institutions with developed VRRs mainly established these as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic and with the aim of delivering remote reading room sessions. Providing access to remote researchers for private study, scholarship or research is the main reason for institutions aiming to launch VRRs in the immediate future. Few consider developing a VRR service solely as a method to support targeted digitisation.
Key drivers for VRR development:
Institutional perspectives
VRRs have been taking on different roles and evolving after the pandemic emergency, especially in certain regions such as Europe and the US. Some VRR services are listed on library websites while others are offered during a reference transaction.
In some regions, such as the UK, institutions investigate how VRR services and digitisation complement each other; VRR services as part of a digitisation workflow could create more impact for digitisation services. In the US, based on the Society of American Archivists (SAA) terminology, a VRR refers to access to digitised materials.
VRRs offer opportunities for working with other institutions. There are discrete areas internationally which have strong communities of practice. The benefits of a community built around VRRs include testing different theories and working together as well as having conversations and learning about the different aspects of developing and running the services (e.g. benefits of VRRs). Being part of a community means that institutions can be signposts for other VRR services.
Recommended resources on the VRR institutional perspectives:
User perspectives
VRRs support equity as their use is not limited to those who can afford to travel. This is particularly important for institutions whose collections have a broad, international reach. They can blur borders and bring collections from different institutions or organisations together in a wholly new, unique and powerful way.
VRRs allow users to evaluate if they want to schedule an in-person visit as they can provide useful information beyond the single collection description line. It is about respecting people’s time and letting them scope out their visit. The ecological benefits that VRRs have by reducing long-haul and short-haul travel are also of considerable importance.
Most users use VRRs to do one or more of the following:
- To conduct preliminary research
- As a precursor to a physical visit
- To make a digitisation request
- To check single documents
- For referencing purposes
Users can have different needs when using VRRs. Some may want to record and view later, while others may just want to get a feel for an item and establish if they want to make a digitisation request or visit in the future. Some may want to view the whole item, some are looking for particular features or would like to compare to other institutional holdings.
VRRs can provide more than a visual experience: with a microphone set-up they can provide a more complete sensory experience with the sounds of pages turning (and their crackling) in older books; lead into other sensory discussions around the smell of the paper, it’s production; the scale and heft of the object. Thus, they can be equally used for conducting original research and teaching a variety of user groups (from students to experts). However, extensive research on collection items, such as uncatalogued material, through VRRs is not advised as it can be too time consuming for library staff.
They also have strong cultural capability as they can help open up collections and make them available to a wide range of communities. They can be used to encourage greater collaboration with and participation by community members who may not traditionally engage with institutional collections, such as First Nation communities in Australia. For example, by joining a VRR session through Zoom or similar, community members can see collections in real time. They can, then, make decisions on whether they want certain collection items to be digitised or voice their opinion on whether certain digitisation initiatives are inappropriate, and influence decisions on the level of access to these materials for others. In a similar way, VRRs can be used to evaluate material for cultural gifts.
There is still a need to build reputation and get recognition from researchers and the library community has a role to play in ensuring and supporting the legitimacy and validity of VRR research compared to traditional consultation (and its status) and role for libraries. Identifying and collaborating with academic VRR champions is a proven way of enhancing visibility and usage of the services. The establishment of best practice and cross-sector collaboration can increase benefits for users and institutions; however, issues around resourcing and sustainability of the services should not be overlooked.
Recommended resources on the VRR user perspective:
The Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs) Toolkit
Developing a VRR service
Delivering a VRR service
Sustaining a VRR service
Other considerations
Help us to shape the toolkit with your feedback (smart survey)
References
Useful Links
International Alliance of Research Library Associations (IARLA)
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Australia/New Zealand seminar recording
International VRR sprint relay symposium – UK/Europe seminar recording
International VRR sprint relay symposium – North America seminar recording
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Mentimeter results from Australia/New Zealand seminar
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Jamboards from Australia/New Zealand seminar
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Mentimeter results from UK/Europe seminar
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Jamboards from UK/Europe seminar
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Mentimeter results from North America seminar
International VRR sprint relay symposium – Jamboards from North America seminar