About
Queen Mary Digital Collections provides access to digitised and born-digital material from our Archives and Special Collections. As we develop our digital collections, Queen Mary Digital Collections will grow and evolve to meet the needs of digital scholarship methods and activities. Digitisation is an ongoing process and the collections available here will continue to grow.
This site is managed by staff in Archives and Special Collections, within Library Services at Queen Mary University of London.
Queen Mary Digital Collections provides access to digitised and born-digital material from our Archives and Special Collections. As we develop our digital collections, Queen Mary Digital Collections will grow and evolve to meet the needs of digital scholarship methods and activities. Digitisation is an ongoing process and the collections available here will continue to grow.
This site is managed by staff in Archives and Special Collections, within Library Services at Queen Mary University of London.
You can either use the browse function to look through all our digital content, or you can put a search term in the search bar (on the home page, or at the magnifying glass icon at the top of any page) and it will show results from documents (which might be the metadata - i.e. the information on an item’s document page - or the transcription) or static content (articles and introductions written to accompany the collections). The search results page will show you documents in which the search term appears:
Click on a result to open it up and view the images, you can zoom in and out and move around the image to look at different parts in more detail. If the image comes from something divided into contents, for example the Green Books are divided up by page, you can navigate through these, either by clicking the forward and back arrows at the top right of the image, or jump to different pages via the 'Contents' tab in the information panel on the right:
Some of our items have been transcribed using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) or HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition). This is to aid full-text search and may not be 100% accurate.
The International Image Interoperability Framework is an open-source tool that is used by heritage institutions across the world. This can be used to view the document in full screen, and to compare it with other items in our collection or even from other institutions’ online collection platforms that support the IIIF viewer.
Finding more about our collections
The material on Queen Mary Digital Collections does not represent everything we hold in our collections. In many cases, a selection has been made, and more material is available for consultation in our Archives Reading Room. Some collection items will have a Catalogue Reference on their document page, which you can use to look them up in our Archive Catalogue to find out more about it and related items. For information on how to use the Archive Catalogue, see our Getting Started page for an introduction to the archives and tips on how to find material.
Help using this website
You can either use the browse function to look through all our digital content, or you can put a search term in the search bar (on the home page, or at the magnifying glass icon at the top of any page) and it will show results from documents (which might be the metadata - i.e. the information on an item’s document page - or the transcription) or static content (articles and introductions written to accompany the collections). The search results page will show you documents in which the search term appears:
Click on a result to open it up and view the images, you can zoom in and out and move around the image to look at different parts in more detail. If the image comes from something divided into contents, for example the Green Books are divided up by page, you can navigate through these, either by clicking the forward and back arrows at the top right of the image, or jump to different pages via the 'Contents' tab in the information panel on the right:
Some of our items have been transcribed using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) or HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition). This is to aid full-text search and may not be 100% accurate.
The International Image Interoperability Framework is an open-source tool that is used by heritage institutions across the world. This can be used to view the document in full screen, and to compare it with other items in our collection or even from other institutions’ online collection platforms that support the IIIF viewer.
Finding more about our collections
The material on Queen Mary Digital Collections does not represent everything we hold in our collections. In many cases, a selection has been made, and more material is available for consultation in our Archives Reading Room. Some collection items will have a Catalogue Reference on their document page, which you can use to look them up in our Archive Catalogue to find out more about it and related items. For information on how to use the Archive Catalogue, see our Getting Started page for an introduction to the archives and tips on how to find material.
Our aim in describing our collections is to make it as easy as possible for you to find relevant items. With this in mind we have taken a decision to use modern language in our tagging like current names of countries and subject terms like LGBTQ+. These tags are applied even if the item in question was created before a country was re-named or a term invented. This has been done to help with discovery and to group items into meaningful categories for today's users. We will review these on a yearly basis to check they remain accurate and relevant.
You will still find any historical terms or place names relevant in the description of the item so you can search by these terms. But if you want to filter by a subject or place you should look for the most recent version of this name/term.
In our "Associated People or Organisations" field we have used the most recent name of a given organisation or person that we know of. Maiden names and previous organisational names will remain in the item description so you can still search by these terms in free text search. But if you are trying to filter the collections for someone or something that changed their name you should use their most recent name when choosing a filter.
Describing our collections
Our aim in describing our collections is to make it as easy as possible for you to find relevant items. With this in mind we have taken a decision to use modern language in our tagging like current names of countries and subject terms like LGBTQ+. These tags are applied even if the item in question was created before a country was re-named or a term invented. This has been done to help with discovery and to group items into meaningful categories for today's users. We will review these on a yearly basis to check they remain accurate and relevant.
You will still find any historical terms or place names relevant in the description of the item so you can search by these terms. But if you want to filter by a subject or place you should look for the most recent version of this name/term.
In our "Associated People or Organisations" field we have used the most recent name of a given organisation or person that we know of. Maiden names and previous organisational names will remain in the item description so you can still search by these terms in free text search. But if you are trying to filter the collections for someone or something that changed their name you should use their most recent name when choosing a filter.
What you might encounter
You may encounter content that is: ableist, classist, colonialist, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, transphobic, or xenophobic. Usually, this will take the form of outdated terminology or attitudes in historical material, but occasionally more contemporary material may also contain discriminatory views. We understand that what constitutes harmful content is not necessarily the same for everyone and that you may access potentially harmful material that we do not yet know about.
Why we provide access
We collect, preserve and provide access to material to facilitate teaching, learning and research at Queen Mary and beyond. We do not exclude material because of the ideas or opinions expressed within it. The collections we make available may include biased or offensive language or reveal attitudes that reflect the views of their creators and/or the period in which they were created. We seek to balance the preservation of this history with sensitivity to how these materials are presented and perceived. The presence of any such material within our collections does not imply an endorsement of the ideas or opinions expressed within the content.
What we’re doing to address it
We strive to manage our collections responsibly and will take measures to minimise offence where appropriate. This does not mean we will alter original material or necessarily remove collections from public access. We will try to describe material respectfully and inclusively and if we know harmful content exists within a collection, we will use plain language to inform users about it and/or place an advisory warning on groups of records, to prepare researchers for the possibility that they might encounter content they find offensive.
If you encounter material that potentially could be considered harmful on Queen Mary Digital Collections, please contact us so we can use your feedback to help us provide an informed and supportive access experience.
Harmful content
What you might encounter
You may encounter content that is: ableist, classist, colonialist, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, transphobic, or xenophobic. Usually, this will take the form of outdated terminology or attitudes in historical material, but occasionally more contemporary material may also contain discriminatory views. We understand that what constitutes harmful content is not necessarily the same for everyone and that you may access potentially harmful material that we do not yet know about.
Why we provide access
We collect, preserve and provide access to material to facilitate teaching, learning and research at Queen Mary and beyond. We do not exclude material because of the ideas or opinions expressed within it. The collections we make available may include biased or offensive language or reveal attitudes that reflect the views of their creators and/or the period in which they were created. We seek to balance the preservation of this history with sensitivity to how these materials are presented and perceived. The presence of any such material within our collections does not imply an endorsement of the ideas or opinions expressed within the content.
What we’re doing to address it
We strive to manage our collections responsibly and will take measures to minimise offence where appropriate. This does not mean we will alter original material or necessarily remove collections from public access. We will try to describe material respectfully and inclusively and if we know harmful content exists within a collection, we will use plain language to inform users about it and/or place an advisory warning on groups of records, to prepare researchers for the possibility that they might encounter content they find offensive.
If you encounter material that potentially could be considered harmful on Queen Mary Digital Collections, please contact us so we can use your feedback to help us provide an informed and supportive access experience.
Rights statements you will see on images in Queen Mary Digital Collections:
- In Copyright - you must get permission from the rights holder to reuse it beyond permitted exceptions.
- No Known Copyright / Out of Copyright - you are free to reuse this so long as you are satisfied by your own assessment.
Licences you will see on Queen Mary Digital Collections. These enable reuse of in copyright material so long as you follow the outlined conditions:
Quotation with proper attribution is a copyright exception and is therefore allowed for any collection published here. To cite your quote please include the following: Queen Mary University of London Archives: Collection name; Catalogue reference; Title, date, page or item number. This information can be found in the summary fields of an item.
Copyright and re-use
Rights statements you will see on images in Queen Mary Digital Collections:
- In Copyright - you must get permission from the rights holder to reuse it beyond permitted exceptions.
- No Known Copyright / Out of Copyright - you are free to reuse this so long as you are satisfied by your own assessment.
Licences you will see on Queen Mary Digital Collections. These enable reuse of in copyright material so long as you follow the outlined conditions:
Quotation with proper attribution is a copyright exception and is therefore allowed for any collection published here. To cite your quote please include the following: Queen Mary University of London Archives: Collection name; Catalogue reference; Title, date, page or item number. This information can be found in the summary fields of an item.
In cases where our digitised collections have third party rights holders, we have made every reasonable effort to contact them to gain permission before publishing on Queen Mary Digital Collections. However, in cases where we have been unable to identify who these rights holders are or find current contact details after making all reasonable efforts to find these we have taken the decision to publish anyway. This is because we believe the public good of making information accessible for educational and research purposes justifies this approach.
If you are a rights holder and you are concerned that you have found material available on Queen Mary Digital Collections which you have not given permission to be published, which infringes your copyright and is not covered by a limitation or exception in national law, please contact us in writing stating the following:
- Your contact details
- The nature of your request
- Full details of the material concerned including URL and catalogue reference where available
- Proof that you are the rights holder or are an authorised representative
Once we receive your request the takedown procedure is as follows:
- We will acknowledge your correspondence within 10 working days
- We will make an initial assessment of the validity of the request, considering the material’s copyright status and verifying your identity as the copyright holder, and if the complaint is found to be valid, we will temporarily remove the material from Queen Mary Digital Collections until we can reach an agreed solution
We will aim to resolve the issue swiftly and amicably and to the satisfaction of both parties, with the following possible outcomes:
- The material is replaced on the website unchanged.
- The material is replaced on the website with changes.
- The material is permanently removed from the website.
We aim to resolve issues within 20 working days from the date we acknowledge your takedown request.
Takedown procedure
In cases where our digitised collections have third party rights holders, we have made every reasonable effort to contact them to gain permission before publishing on Queen Mary Digital Collections. However, in cases where we have been unable to identify who these rights holders are or find current contact details after making all reasonable efforts to find these we have taken the decision to publish anyway. This is because we believe the public good of making information accessible for educational and research purposes justifies this approach.
If you are a rights holder and you are concerned that you have found material available on Queen Mary Digital Collections which you have not given permission to be published, which infringes your copyright and is not covered by a limitation or exception in national law, please contact us in writing stating the following:
- Your contact details
- The nature of your request
- Full details of the material concerned including URL and catalogue reference where available
- Proof that you are the rights holder or are an authorised representative
Once we receive your request the takedown procedure is as follows:
- We will acknowledge your correspondence within 10 working days
- We will make an initial assessment of the validity of the request, considering the material’s copyright status and verifying your identity as the copyright holder, and if the complaint is found to be valid, we will temporarily remove the material from Queen Mary Digital Collections until we can reach an agreed solution
We will aim to resolve the issue swiftly and amicably and to the satisfaction of both parties, with the following possible outcomes:
- The material is replaced on the website unchanged.
- The material is replaced on the website with changes.
- The material is permanently removed from the website.
We aim to resolve issues within 20 working days from the date we acknowledge your takedown request.