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Special Collections: About Us

Introduction to Special Collections

Our Mission Statement

Library Services & Special Collections | Mission Statement - Special Collections

The mission of the London Metropolitan University Special Collections Department (which includes, among others, the University Archives), is to collect, organise, preserve, and make accessible the permanent records of the University as well as rare and unique collections that support the University's teaching and research.

Approved by the University's Senior Leadership Team April 2019.

Donating material

If you wish to donate archival material or publications that you think may be relevant to our collections please contact us at: specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk

Accepted material will be:  

  • made available for research to our students, staff and the general public, under supervision in our Reading Room (see Visitor Information) 
  • preserved in an environmentally-controlled and secure archive store 
  • numbered and listed for housekeeping purposes and discovery via our Collections Catalogue  
  • reproduced for personal study, subject to copyright restrictions and compliance with data protection  
  • given Conservation treatment if needed, according to best practice  
  • loaned, if requested, to other organisations for display or exhibition 
  • reproduced, if requested, by publishers or the media wishing to license a copy of any material. Please note that we charge a fee for this to cover administration, and that we comply with relevant legislation (e.g. copyright and data protection)  

Access Information and Data Governance

Introduction

  • The Special Collections Department aims to make the published material, objects and archival collections held by the University available for consultation and research.
  • The Special Collections team will not be able to provide access to records where that access would constitute a breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation.
  • Any individual who abides by the rules and procedures of the Special Collections Department is welcome to view the records held, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, disability, religious or political affiliation, or any other similar differentiation, in line with the University’s Equality and Diversity Policy.
  • Access to information about the collections can be obtained from a variety of places:
  • Library Services is committed to providing a high quality service to all users including Special Collections users. However, in the event that a user is unhappy with the service provided, we will endeavour to resolve the problem. In the first instance any complaint should be made to the Head of Special Collections. In the event of an unsatisfactory resolution, the issue will be referred the University Librarian.

 

Access on Site

  • Original documents and publications held in the Special Collections can be consulted at the Special Collections Reading Room, Holloway Road Learning Centre, London, N7 6PP
  • We ask that users of the Special Collections make an appointment prior to their visit in order to ensure that adequate staff and resources are available to fulfil their requests. Although we do endeavour to accommodate users who have not made an appointment, Special Collections reserves the right to refuse access to users without an appointment.
  • Users with disabilities may wish to consult our Accessibility Support page to find information about the assistance you can expect from the staff.
  • Users are able to visit the Special Collections Reading Room during designated opening hours. The Special Collections Department may occasionally have to close to the public during designated opening hours for teaching and group visits. Any planned closures will be advertised on Library locations and opening times in advance, or if unexpected via Social Media.
  • Our staff will provide courteous and helpful guidance to any user who visits the Special Collections Reading Room. Users can expect to receive assistance in using finding aids and catalogues and to identify useful research materials and primary sources. Users will also be made aware of how to handle archival material and fragile publications.
  • We aim to make all material from our holdings accessible to any individual. However, there are certain circumstances under which we may restrict access to individual records or collections. These are as follows:
     
    • Legislative purposes: in particular Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation. In order to ensure the right balance between openness and safeguarding individuals’ right to a private life some records containing personal information about an individual might be closed. Researchers may apply for early access to closed records, by submitting a written request to the University Librarian. These applications are reviewed on a case by case basis. Any request for information on living individuals must be directed to University’s Information Compliance Officer.
    • Preservation purposes: access may be refused to collections items in a particularly fragile condition or where handling is likely to cause damage to the records. The decision to refuse access on the grounds of preservation purposes is made at the discretion of the most senior member of Special Collections staff on duty, but arrangements may be made to provide access to a surrogate copy. Researchers are entitled to apply for access to such material by submitting a written request to the University Librarian.
    • Depositor’s wishes: some of the collections held have been deposited here by their legal owners to allow consultation by researchers. When this occurs, we enter into a deposit agreement with the owner. Occasionally, depositors may stipulate that certain conditions must be met for access to be granted, or ask for a designated closure period to be applied to particular documents.
    • Business sensitivity. Certain university records are closed for a period following their creation. Researchers are entitled to apply for access to such material under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, by submitting a request to the University’s Information Compliance Officer.
    • Uncatalogued material. A proportion of our holdings are catalogued, but some holdings remain uncatalogued. Access to uncatalogued material may be restricted, due to the staff time needed to find the required information.

 

Remote Access

  • We recognise that on site access is not always possible. We will endeavour to provide remote access where resourcing allows.
  • We will respond to all enquiries received from the public by telephone, letter, or email. All written enquiries will be answered within 10 working days of receipt.
  • We will provide information on our holdings, and perform limited research within our holdings free of charge. For particularly lengthy or detailed research we will refer users to the list of private researchers approved by The National Archives.
  • We will provide access to selected material online through digitisation projects, blogs and online exhibitions as far as is reasonably practical.

 

Digital Access

  • Access to digitised content of the collections is provided via our Special Collections Catalogue, University's digital repository EPrints (Archive of the Irish in Britain), the archives collection management system (once implemented) and the four TUC Library project websites.
  • There is currently no single point of access to born-digital records for all collections, either on site or remotely.
  • In certain circumstances access to born-digital material may be provided at request and upon satisfactory copyright clearance procedure over a secure transfer (downloadable link).
  • Due to limited resources, technical dependencies, software obsolescence and software licensing restrictions Special Collections cannot guarantee that born-digital original records can be rendered within currently available technology. Whenever feasible we will aim to provide surrogate copy produced through the process of format migration.
     

Copies of Documents

  • We endeavour to provide copies of documents to onsite and remote users at reasonable cost to the user. These charges are displayed on on our Scan on Demand section.
  • We have a responsibility and duty of care for the unique resources in our care and may refuse to copy documents if the process is likely to cause damage to the document.
  • The decision to undertake or refuse to make copies of documents on the grounds of preservation is made at the discretion of the most senior member of staff on duty.
  • Copies of material are created and provided to or taken by users with regard to copyright and intellectual property law.
  • No user will be provided with copies of documents, nor permitted to take their own digital photographs of documents, without first completing a copyright declaration form.
  • Copies of material are created or taken for private research use only.
  • Copies provided or taken for commercial purposes may be subject to a reproduction/licensing fee.

 

Monitoring and Improving Access

  • The Special Collections Department is committed to improving access provision. We continually monitor the numbers of readers accessing the collections in order to understand how better prioritise our limited resources.
  • We collect data on both Reading Room visits as well as online engagement through social media channels and Google Analytic (and other measuring tools) on our webpages. This insight is then used to plan further cataloguing and preservation work as well as outreach and engagement activities.

 

Outreach and Engagement

Special Collections staff develop, plan and review audience-focused approaches and user-centred strategies in order to offer greater potential for producing measurable outcomes that showcase the value and impact of collections. 

Library Services and Special Collections

Content added to our webpages and online catalogue has received due diligence checks for intellectual property and ownership rights. It has been shared to support educational research and provide wider access to our collections online. However, if you are concerned that there may have been a breach of your intellectual property and/or ownership rights, please do email library@londonmet.ac.uk and include the following information:

  • Your name and contact details
  • The URL and description of the content you wish to challenge
  • Evidence that you are the rights holder or their authorised representative
  • The reason for your request

On notification of a possible breach, the work in question will be made unavailable for public access, and then further examined in response to the enquiry. We will acknowledge receipt of your enquiry by email. Once further checks have been performed to assess the validity of the case, the claimant will be contacted with a response.

In our Special Collections and Archives there may be a need to retain personal data beyond the usual time periods specified in data protection legislation. This may be because the data about the owner, originator or participator in the content and material we hold may be of lasting interest for future research or there may be a legal compliance for us to retain that data.

In many cases, this data is confidential and only visible to the Special Collections staff and the Library Management Team.

We are compliant with data protection legislation and this means that we are not always able to share personal data in our holdings.

We follow the guidance from The National Archives in order to protect and retain any such data and under certain circumstances, the data is under embargo according to time periods advised by the National Archives.

If you have any concerns about the data that we may hold please email us specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk and include "Data Protection query" in your email subject line. 

Please also refer to the University's policy on data protection and information about subject access requests.

Statement of Public Task

Along with other higher education libraries, London Metropolitan University's Library Services and Special Collections Department is subject to the Re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) Regulations 2015.

For more information about PSI please refer to the Statutory Instrument on PSI (accessed September 2021).

Library Services and Special Collections exists in order to:

  • support the teaching, learning and research activities of the University through the provision of information resources, both in print and in electronic formats
  • provide support and training in how to access and use information resources
  • develop the collections and library space according to user needs

The public task of London Metropolitan University Library, under the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations, consists of the principal activity outlined below:

  • to provide permission to use digital copies of manuscripts, documents and objects in our collections for re-use in publications or through other media

The University’s museum and archival collections are not covered by the PSI Regulations, however, London Metropolitan University Library Services and Special Collections Department has decided to apply the same terms and conditions to both library materials and the archival and museum collections it holds for the University.