University of Leicester Archives & Special Collections
Nomination:
The University of Leicester Archives & Special Collections is an ambitious service delivering significant impact across record-keeping, access, and engagement over the last 18 months.
The service has secured and preserved major collections, including the development of the UK’s only dedicated Museum Design Archives. Alongside this, the Richard III digital preservation project represents a step change in the management of complex born-digital archives, developing workflows that can be shared across the sector.
The service has shown strategic sector-level leadership in the preservation of sound heritage, leading the ‘Sounds of the Midlands’ project which brings together regional partners to safeguard and transform access to at-risk audio collections.
Our learning and engagement activities continue to innovate and grow. The team has expanded its learning and teaching provision year-on-year (from 34 sessions for 456 students to 40 sessions reaching 567 students), while piloting new approaches such as co-curated exhibitions, creative writing workshops, and hands-on, career-focused learning. These projects give students practical skills and an insight into the archive profession.
The service demonstrates a strong commitment to inclusion, collecting new oral history collections that amplify underrepresented voices, and working with local schools to introduce young people to archives for the first time.
Beyond the institution, Archives & Special Collections is making a strong contribution to the profession. The development of the Challenging Records Toolkit—already widely accessed and shared—shows leadership in addressing difficult areas of archival practice.
Taken together, the service combines strong professional practice with creativity, collaboration and a clear sense of purpose. It demonstrates how archives can be open to all while delivering excellence in core record-keeping.
Supporting evidence of service delivery excellence
About us
Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) at the University of Leicester cares for over 900 years of history, from medieval manuscripts to modern literary archives. Our collections—of regional, national and international importance—include:
The Sue Townsend Collection
The Joe Orton Collection
University of Leicester Archives
The East Midlands Oral History Archive
The Museum Design Archives
With a core team of 4.6 FTE staff, we deliver ambitious, high-impact work across preservation, access, teaching, and public engagement.
Demonstrating excellence
Securing and transforming significant collections
Building a new home for UK Museum Design Archives:
We acquired 160 boxes from the design studio Casson Mann and with a £5,000 grant from the Records at Risk Grants programme completed appraisal, listing and repackaging of approximately 60 boxes. This project supported our long-term goal to tell the story of how UK-based design studios have reimagined museums across the world from the 1970s to the present.
‘Casson Mann was a key studio active in the revolution in museum design, made possible by the introduction of Lottery funding. It is wonderful that we have been able to secure this archive for students, researchers and designers.’ Suzanne Macleod, Professor of Museum Studies
Figure 1. Seminar to launch the Museum Design Archives in July 2025
Achieving a major digital preservation milestone:
Supported by a £70,000 legacy gift from Janet Neaverson, the Richard III Digital Preservation Project was a major step forward in caring for our born-digital archives.
The project secured and preserved complex born-digital records documenting the University’s role in the discovery and identification of the remains of King Richard III.
Figure 2. LE1 magazine, Spring 2013 ref: ULA/P/AR90
Through this work, we have:
Received and appraised 11 TB of material
Selected and preserved 1.1TB of digital records
Created over 1230 catalogue records
Created a public-facing online exhibition explaining digital preservation
Embedded digital skills across the team through training
Established workflows to process different kinds of records
To find out more explore the Digital Preservation at the University of Leicester exhibition and visit our website.
Saving the sound heritage of the Midlands:
In partnership with the university’s Institute for Digital Culture and Heritage Hub, we carried out an audit of sound archives across the Midlands. This was the first step towards an ambitious project to digitally preserve and transform access to the sound heritage of the region.
We are delighted to have been awarded development funding by The National Lottery Heritage Fund for ‘Sounds of the Midlands’.[1]
The initial funding will support a 12-month development phase. Following this and the submission of a detailed proposal, a final decision will be made on a further award of £1,668,000 by the Heritage Fund. We are aiming to preserve as many as 10,000 recordings, engage 10,000 people through outreach and learning activities, and work with 250 volunteers.
Figure 3. The David Wilson Library sound digitisation studio in use for a previous project
Innovation in learning and engagement
During the academic year 2024-25 we ran 34 teaching sessions for 456 students, rising to 40 sessions attended by 567 students in 2025-26. Over the past 18 months we have engaged 20 volunteers, who contributed a total of 172.5 hours of their time.
Building on our successful ‘open house’ style activities such as Sue Townsend Bike Ride tours and Heritage Open Days, we have explored new ways of engaging people with our collections, including the following highlights.
Creative writing workshops
We co-delivered creative writing workshops using our archive collections, with workshops facilitated by author and University of Leicester Writer in Residence, Professor Kit De Waal.
“Don’t be fooled by thinking this was just looking at old stuff - we brought the materials bang up to date, and each writer brought their own personal history and style to the event, finding a unique perspective on some very interesting texts.” Professor Kit de Waal, Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence
We are working with Dr Nuala Morse, Associate Professor in Museum Studies, on the project ‘‘Empathy and the Archive: Creative encounters with Medical Collections’. With The Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, we are pioneering new pedagogical approaches using the Leicester Medical Society archives to nurture empathy and support wellbeing in healthcare professionals.
Interdisciplinary exhibition: 75 Years of Sociology at Leicester
To mark the 75th anniversary of Sociology at the university, we piloted a collaborative approach to exhibitions.
With Dr Laurie Parsons, Lecturer in Sociology, we curated an exhibition that highlighted the evolution of sociological education, its real-world impact, and the trailblazing women who helped shape the discipline.
To ensure the exhibition remained relevant and student-centred, we engaged student volunteers as co-curators.
Volunteers gained experience of exhibition curation, enabling participants to contribute to research, interpretation and display. They developed transferable skills in storytelling, object selection and public engagement, alongside practical training in oral history interviewing.
These audio interviews captured contemporary student experiences, ensuring that student voices are preserved as part of our University Archive.
"Collaborating with Special Collections has provided a unique and compelling opportunity to celebrate the past, present and future of Sociology at Leicester. It's been a pleasure to 'meet' people from the past through the archive, and see the contribution they've made to the University community over 75 years". Dr Laurie Parsons, Lecturer in Sociology
Figure 5. Vice-chancellor Prof Sir Nishan Canagarajah joining students and staff at the exhibition launch
Archives training for new museum professionals
We have worked in close partnership with Museum Studies staff and students to embed archival practice within teaching and professional training.
Figure 6. Museum Studies students at the launch of the Engaging Audiences exhibition, with artworks by Jenny Steele
The Engaging Audiences MA module (c. 70 students), which we co-deliver, enables students to curate exhibitions using archival material, artworks, and loaned museum objects, providing them with practical curatorial experience. We also co-lead the Heritage Specialism, (c. 12 students annually). This includes a live collecting project documenting recent student experiences.
In summer 2025, two work placement students co-curated The Material Culture of Books, working with our collections and using microscopy and XRF analysis in the University’s Advanced Microanalysis Laboratory to investigate manuscript materials. This was the first time we have analysed our medieval book of hours and 19th century children’s books in this way, as described in the students’ blogpost.
Figure 7: Photograph taken during lab analysis. Medieval manuscript undergoing XRF scanning.
Career-focused teaching
To enhance the student experience, we designed a new workshop for English students that extends learning beyond traditional methods and strengthens the connection with our special collections.
‘From Shelf to Showcase’ piloted a hands-on, object-based learning workshop that empowers students to act as co‑curators, working with collection items to design their own exhibition concepts. The approach guides students through real curatorial processes—theme development, audience analysis, item selection, and the creation of accessible interpretative text. Students developed both a deeper understanding and appreciation of the collections, while being introduced to career-specific skills in interpretation and engagement.
“It was really enjoyable looking at the individual texts and considering how to share it with a wider audience”
“I’d never thought about this career path before and its very interesting!” BA English student feedback
Inclusion and community engagement
Inclusion is central to our mission, highlighted through our efforts to preserve and increase access to audio collections that reflect regional voices and tell the histories of underrepresented communities.
We have processed 16 new audio collections within the last eighteen months, including:
The Bernard Greaves Collection: audio recordings created by leading gay rights campaigner and prominent Liberal Democrat spokesman, Bernard Greaves
Steel Town Tales: oral histories of those working in the steel industry in Corby, Northamptonshire
St Philip’s Centre’s ‘Living Together’ project: 104 interviews with people from diverse nationalities, ethnicities and faiths about how we all live together in Leicester.
Extending beyond our university community, we support schools across Leicestershire, delivering partner projects such as Being a Historian Day (10-11 year olds); Young Victorians Day (12-13 year olds) and The Sue Townsend Collection workshops (14 year olds). In total we have engaged 170 school pupils, introducing them to our collections for the first time.
Leadership and contribution to the archives sector
We demonstrated sector leadership through our contribution to professional practice and equipping the next generation of information professionals.
The award of a prestigious TNA–RLUK Professional Fellowship to our Assistant Archivist led to the creation of The Challenging Records Toolkit – a practical resource for line managers to support their staff who encounter challenging records unexpectedly. Findings from the Fellowship have been disseminated through networks, webinars, blogposts, and at last year’s ARA Annual Conference in Bristol. The toolkit has received 933 views and 442 downloads since its publication in August 2025.
Our Archivist took part in the latest Research Libraries UK Research Catalyst Cohort and acts as a peer reviewer Archive Service Accreditation.
Conclusion
Through strategic investment, collaborative working, and a strong commitment to inclusion, we have expanded access to our collections, preserved diverse voices, and strengthened our contribution to teaching, research, and the archive sector.
Our work demonstrates how a small, dedicated, and innovative team can achieve significant impact, preserving the past while actively shaping the future of record-keeping.
[1][1] Led by the University of Leicester, Sounds of the Midlands is a partnership with Birmingham Archives and Collections, Shropshire Archives, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service, Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, and Loughborough University’s Digital Decarbonisation team.