Sustainable infrastructure for the digital shift: upgrading collections access and preservation at the University of Reading

该项目将翻新和升级雷丁大学博物馆和特别藏品服务处(UMASCS)运营的以实物和数字藏品为基础的研究设施，以实现获取该大学杰出研究藏品的基础设施的阶段性变化。随着该大学的艺术和人文研究战略现在与其藏品的优势密切相关，这项提议将投资于基本的研究设施，这些设施近年来有助于改变该大学以藏品为基础的研究和数字奖学金的方法。这些藏品和设施对AHRC资助的重大研究的成功发展至关重要，随着进一步的投资，这些收藏和设施将支持该大学围绕中心和卓越研究群重新制定的艺术和人文战略。这些项目包括与塞缪尔·贝克特、实验电影制作人斯蒂芬·德沃斯金的创意作品有关的正在进行或正在开发的研究项目，现代主义出版，以及景观的设计和使用。UMASCS管理的现有基础设施建立于2006年，主要是为了改善博物馆和收藏品的物理访问和藏品管理。事实证明，博物馆、档案馆和图书馆特别藏品的这种不同寻常的整合在支持AHRC和其他赠款捕获以及在基于藏品的研究和教学方面鼓励创新方面非常有效。在NLHF、Wellcome和DCMS Wolfson的资助下，画廊、公众参与和学习空间的翻新提高了知名度，从而提高了与UMASCS相关的研究和影响活动，导致现场(超过50,000人)和在线使用人数(超过150,000社交媒体追随者)不断增加。对藏书研究的需求是巨大的，尽管有新冠肺炎，上一学年仍有超过2,400次访问和16,800次图书和文献检索。虽然最近推进数字获取和奖学金的机会带来了对新技术和技能的零星投资，但这项提议将使全面改进和升级成为可能，特别是支持艺术和人文学科奖学金、多学科工作和创造性参与的数字化转变。这与雷丁大学的战略目标非常一致。该计划包括五个相关的翻新区域，覆盖两个关键地点：圣安德鲁阅览室，主要藏品阅览室、数字化套房、公众参与和画廊空间所在；以及Worton Grange，一个非现场设施，存放大量藏品以及相关的处理空间。圣安德鲁的翻新将增加阅览室的容量，该阅览室为英国乡村生活博物馆和大学特别藏品的图书馆和档案馆提供服务。这将包括新的办公桌、升级的数字终端，以及通过新的指示标志扩大开放访问图书馆的容量。相关的数字化套件将进行升级，以实现更高质量和更快的图像捕获、数字资产管理和数字保存。新的视听设备将取代目前用于数字化基于时间的媒体的临时设施。在公共区域，从公众或特定群体获取研究数据的升级设施将带来更大的灵活性，并被带到一个具有在线数据获取的公共平台上，从而实现链接的开放数据方法。在Worton Grange，藏品访问和数字化区域将进行翻新，以创建藏品研究实验室。这将使研究人员能够轮流办公，并与收藏品工作人员一起工作。是次升级工程将改善香港大学标本馆的规格及优化储存空间，包括翻新储藏架，以便可将更多藏品--例如香港大学的标本馆--带到现场，以便更有效地部署和共用研究设施。

This project will refurbish and upgrade physical and digital collections-based research facilities operated by the University of Reading's Museums and Special Collections Services (UMASCS), to create a step-change in the infrastructure for accessing to the University's outstanding research collections. With the University's research strategy for arts and humanities now closely aligned to the strengths of its collections, this proposal will invest in the essential research facilities that have been instrumental in transforming the University's approach to collections-based research and digital scholarship in recent years. These collections and facilities have already been critical to the successful development of major AHRC-funded research and with further investment will underpin the University's renewed strategy for arts and humanities around centres and clusters of research excellence. These include research projects underway or in development relating to the creative works of Samuel Beckett, the experimental film maker Stephen Dwoskin, modernist publishing, and the design and use of landscapes.Existing infrastructure managed by UMASCS was established in 2006 primarily to improve physical access and collections management across museums and collections. This unusual integration of museums, archives and library special collections has proved highly effective in supporting AHRC and other grant capture and in instigating innovation in collections-based research and teaching. Refurbishment of galleries and public engagement and learning spaces, supported by NLHF, Wellcome and DCMS Wolfson funding, has raised the profile and hence research and impact activity linked to UMASCS, resulting in growing on-site (over 50,000) and online usage numbers (over 150,000 social media followers). Demand for collections research is substantial, with over 2,400 visits and 16,800 book and document retrievals last academic year, in spite of COVID-19. While recent opportunities to advance digital access and scholarship have brought piecemeal investment in new technologies and skills, this proposal would enable comprehensive improvements and upgrades, particularly to support the digital shift in arts and humanities scholarship, multidisciplinary work and creative engagement. This aligns closely to the University of Reading's strategic goals.The proposal encompasses five related areas of refurbishment covering the two key sites: St Andrew's, where the main collections reading room, digitisation suite, public engagement and gallery spaces are located, and Worton Grange, an off-site facility holding high-volume collections with associated processing spaces.The St Andrew's refurbishment will increase the capacity of the reading room that serves the library and archive of the Museum of English Rural Life and the University's Special Collections. This will include new desks, upgraded digital terminals, and an expansion of open access library capacity with new directional signage. The associated digitisation suite will be upgraded to enable better quality and faster image capture, digital asset management and digital preservation. New AV equipment will replace the current ad hoc facilities for digitising time-based media. In the public areas, upgraded facilities for research data capture from the public or specific groups will enable greater flexibility, and be brought onto a common platform with online data capture, enabling a linked open data approach.At Worton Grange, the collections access and digitisation area will be refurbished to create a collections research lab. This will enable researchers to hot-desk and work alongside collections staff. The upgrade will improve the specification and optimise storage space of including refurbishment of the storage racks to enable a wider range of collections - such as the University's Herbarium - to be brought on-site, so that research facilities can be deployed and shared more effectively.