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LCCOS hosts some of the world’s most significant collections of library materials and museum objects. Our staff are working to bring these valuable resources to a wider audience than ever before.
Case studies
Grant Museum redevelopment
The Grant Museum of Zoology has been a vital resource for teaching and research at UCL since the foundation of the university. Located in the Rockefeller Building since 2011, it was recently redeveloped in order to upgrade the physical space, improve the visitor experience, improve access to the museum and provide better care for the collections.
The Museum won a £100,000 award for improvement work from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Foundation. UCL Estates contributed a further £214,000 to support works.
To facilitate this project, the Museum closed to the public for 10 months, reopening on 5 February 2024. The project was led by the Grant Museum curatorial team with support from the collections management team, UCL Estates, UCL academic partners and wider LCCOS colleagues. External experts included specialist case manufacturers, access professionals, museum designers and mount makers.
Five new conservation-grade glass-fronted showcases and five new banks of specimen drawers were installed, replacing old, warped wooden cases and drawers. The new cases have integrated lighting to allow much improved visibility and are sealed to prevent dust and pest ingress. Another showcase was retrofitted with new shelving, dress panels and interior lighting.
Collections work included the movement of over 10,000 specimens into temporary storage, then into new cases and drawers. 170 specimens received conservation treatment and 177 specimens were remounted. 375 new interpretation labels were written for specimens in new cases and 16 additional redisplayed wall cases.
Since reopening, the Grant Museum has welcomed over 25,000 adults and 4,500 under 18s as public visitors who have enjoyed the new displays with overwhelmingly positive feedback. The refurbishment has maintained the specimen-rich displays that make the Grant Museum a much-loved, popular London museum, but has vastly improved the access to the collection through its new displays, interpretation, and accessible resources.
The reframing of the Museum as a resource for research and collaboration has created opportunities for a host of new activities relevant to current issues, initiatives, and curricula. Public programming themes related to climate change and biodiversity are better supported by the new displays. New UCL teaching modules now draw upon the displays and messaging, ensuring that the Grant Museum remains a relevant and valuable collection for all.
Selected user feedback
“If Robert Grant could see us now, I am sure he would be delighted with the exceptional custodianship of his unique gift to UCL”.
(UCL President and Provost Dr Michael Spence)
“What is excellent about it is how, rather than just being a collection of very interesting old stuff, the displays show the impact of research on our current planetary crisis”.
“Thank you for showing us all of the amazing things that you’ve done to make the Grant Museum such a wonderful museum. It was truly inspirational”
“If you’re in London and haven’t seen the epic awesomeness of the Grant Museum’s newly renovated displays, get yourself over there (still complete with all your jar-of-moles, wall of mice, platypus, Micrarium, thylacine and quagga favourites)”
(Anonymous)
Specimens from the refurbished Grant Museum.
Members of the Grant Museum team, in the newly refurbished space.
Improving inclusivity of library catalogue records
LCCOS uses Library of Congress name authorities to ensure that all names recorded in library catalogue records (authors, editors and illustrators as well as geographic names, corporate bodies and series titles) are used and spelled consistently. Until recently, LCCOS cataloguers could not directly contribute new names or edit existing name authorities themselves.
As an institution, we have now joined the NACO UK Funnel, and a member of the Retrospective Cataloguing team is trained in submitting and editing name authorities. This gives us greater control over our catalogue records, ensuring the contributors in our collections can be properly represented. So far, UCL has contributed 52 names and edited 11. This work is ongoing, and there may be potential to include more of this biographical information on Explore using linked data in the future.
Name authority records submitted by UCL are available for global use, improving inclusivity of collections through the creation of authorised, researched records for minority voices and improving the access and visibility of associated collections.
Library of Congress authority record edited by Harriet Hale, Retrospective Cataloguing Team.
Sonia Brownell, later Sonia Orwell.