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One of the key enablers for the current LCCOS Strategy is to develop our potential to generate income based on our unique and distinctive collections.
Case studies
Licensed digitisation of Special Collections
The LCCOS licensing programme for the digitisation of rare books and archives began to bear fruit in 2023-24 with the publication in April 2024 of our first major collection in partnership with British Online Archives: Pandemics, Society and Public Health 1517-1925. UCL content from six named Special Collections, the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES), rare books from Library Services’ Stores, and the archive of Edwin Chadwick forms around a quarter of the new resource, alongside records from the National Archives, the British Library and London Metropolitan Archives.
The licensing programme aims to expand both the scope and speed at which UCL special collections can be made available online to global audiences at the expense of publishing companies, and to generate income for LCCOS. The Pandemics project saw Caroline Kimbell and Amy-Laura Austin research, analyse, license, prepare, dispatch and return over 12,000 pages of material for scanning in Yorkshire, and the first royalty income landed in the summer.
This is just one of 15 ongoing digitisation projects with six partner publishers, and the programme has already massively increased the scale at which UCL’s under-used treasure collections can be digitised, with our key strengths in the history of science, medicine, education and Judaica drawing strong competitive interest from major academic and family history publishers.
The Plague Doctor from Rome, Paulus Fürst
Account of Someone Who Had Committed Treason By Sending A Contagious Plaster of A Plague-Sore to Politician, John Pym.
LCCOS awarded £2.4m HEMG funding
Four of the LCCOS museums and collections were awarded a record £2.4 million of Higher Education Museums, Galleries and Collections (HEMG) funding over the coming five years by Research England.
This 53% increase in funding over the previous award recognises the value of object-based collaborative work of the museums and their unique and significant contributions to research, scholarship and research impact in the UK and internationally.
The world-class museum collections comprise over 200,000 objects which play a fundamental role in delivering UCL’s mission as London’s Global University to integrate education, research, innovation and enterprise for the long-term benefit of humanity. The museums and collections also play a critical role in providing additional external benefit, engaging the public, schools and wider community with research.
LCCOS museums and collections awarded HEMG funding are:
- Grant Museum of Zoology
- Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology
- UCL Art Museum
- UCL Science Collections & Pathology Museum (for the first time).
The award is funding additional staff positions including Producer (Exhibitions), Collections & Exhibitions Technician, and a dedicated Science and Pathology Collections Curatorial and Collections Assistant, to continue and expand the work of LCCOS in these valuable areas.
Thylacine skull in MRI scanner at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Thylacine digital skull from CT scan.