Ask Archivists Day
#AskArchivists Day
On Thursday 9 June, the Bodleian participated in international #AskArchivists Day. #AskArchivists allowed participants from all over the world to ask our archivists and curators questions about their role and our collections; the Bodleian was one of over 100 participating institutions from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.
Eleven of our archivists participated, and we answered questions on topics as varied as using our collections, preserving digital material, tips for aspiring archivists and favourite items from our archives. To view the questions and the response we gave, please visit our Twitter account (@bodleianlibs) or visit our #AskArchivists Q&A page. You can also search Twitter for the hashtag #AskArchivists to see the full range of information generated by the day's events.
Archives and the Bodleian
The Bodleian holds some of the world’s most important archives and manuscript collections, with items ranging from 3rd-century B.C. papyri to the papers of five British prime ministers to ‘born digital’ political posters. Strengths include medieval manuscripts, 17th-century literary and historical collections, antiquarian and topographical manuscripts, modern literary and political papers, Asian and North African manuscripts and ephemera.
The Bodleian’s archives contain original material that drives research in the University and elsewhere. The archives are constantly expanding – for example, recently acquired material includes the papers of Alan Bennett and John le Carré – and the Libraries work to make them available to our readers by cataloguing, digitising and preserving them. This means not only working with the latest preservation and imaging methods, but also finding new ways to present material online, making text and images searchable as never before - for instance, by presenting manuscript collections as part of online exhibitions, as in the recent Shelley's Ghost exhibition, or undertaking research to understand and implement electronic archives, as the futureArch project does.
If you're interested in finding out more about our archives, please visit the Libraries' Special Collections pages.