Doctoral Open Day: Contemporary and Digital Collections

Learn about our collections covering 1950 to the present day, as well as digital formats.

Our Doctoral Open Days are for current and prospective PhD students and Early Career Researchers interested in working with our collections. Each Open Day showcases a different area of our collection, with the aim of making our materials as accessible as possible.

Our Open Days give you the opportunity to:

understand how to access our collectionget expert advice from our Reference Specialistsspeak with curators of collections relevant to your studiesmeet researchers with similar research interests and develop your academic network.The day will consist of:

a drop-in session with our Reference Specialists, who can advise you on the practicalities of accessing our collectionspresentations by our curators, introducing you to their collection areasa ‘Meet the Curators’ session, during which you can view highlights from our collections and talk to our curators about your researcha panel discussion with PhD researchers and Library staff exploring their experiences working with our collections.In this session, explore our contemporary collections covering 1950 to the present day:

Contemporary Published collections, including legal depositLiterary and Creative Archives, Contemporary Archives and ManuscriptsPolitics, Science and Society, Contemporary Archives and ManuscriptsOral History collections.News and Moving ImagesPlus, learn about our digital collections, including:

the UK Web Archivedata setsborn-digital archivesdigital maps.Please note:

on the day of the event, registration will open at 10.30, with optional activities running until 11.30. The main programme will begin at 11.30lunch will be provided and is included in the ticket price. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements (allergies, intolerances and vegetarian/vegan), but please be aware we cannot accommodate preferencesyou will not be able to bring your bag into some sessions due to collection security rules, please do not bring any valuables which cannot be left unattendeda quiet space will be provided for anyone who needs it.If you have any questions about this event or would like to discuss accessibility or dietary requirements, please contact pgr@bl.uk.

Looking for a different Doctoral Open Day? Explore our other Doctoral Open Days currently available to book.