18 February 2025

Opening the Collections: case studies from the University of Manchester Library

Tuesday, 18 February 2025 14:00 GMT

Slides and recording

Abstract

In this webinar, we welcome Jane Gallagher, Head of Digital Special Collections at the University of Manchester. Jane will discuss the University of Manchester Library’s experiences of making cultural heritage collections open for scholarship, with the challenges and opportunities which this brings. Working with heritage collections in digital form, we often balance between preservation and access, user demand and service capabilities, Open aspirations and guarded instincts. Considering our audiences, our tools and standards, the potential for collaboration and the opportunities for confronting historical biases, Jane will share the Library’s different approaches to providing and using cultural heritage collections for open scholarship, and consider future possibilities from the explosion of access to AI tools.

Speaker

Jane Gallagher, Head of Digital Special Collections at the University of Manchester.

Jane is a professional librarian with a background in curation of rare print and special collections materials in the HE sector. Jane’s role as Head of Digital Special Collections includes the oversight of the University Library’s digital special collections, including collection management, digital preservation and digital scholarship initiatives. As part of this, Jane leads the Imaging team of professional photographers who undertake all digitisation of the Special Collections. As a member of the Library’s Leadership Team, she also works to break down silos and to encourage cross-team working and development to enable the widest possible responsible use of our digital special collections. Jane leads the Library’s EDI Working Group, and also curates physical print collections.