JISC

At present there are very few online historical resources to aid learning and teaching in relation to manufacturing in 20^th century Britain.  Due to their age and nature, primary resources are held in a variety of locations, can be hard to access and as a result are highly underused.

The University of Leicester, partnered with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, along with English Heritage, the Higher Education Authority, Victorian Society and Twentieth Century Society, is  digitising a variety of primary historical resources with a specific focus on Leicester’s industrial past.  The project aims to provide lecturers and students with access to a unique selection of photographs, factory plans, company publications, insurance plans and maps.   At present the resources can only be found at the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland and within the University of Leicester’s Joan Skinner Collection.

Having digitised such resources, the project will draw them together into a fully searchable collection, create a range of corresponding open educational resources (OERs), and release them all under an open licence.  The aim is to enhance the teaching of industrial and urban history by giving students, researchers and other interested parties access and context to relevant high quality primary historical sources whilst preserving the original sources. 

By creating OERs in a variety of formats (including text, images, audio and video), resources will be brought to life, giving an idea of what it was like to live and work in a British industrial town during the 20^th century and increasing users’ engagement with the subject.  The 4 main themes, to be embedded in University of Leicester taught course modules will encompass:

• The ecology of the industrial city or town
• The organization of the factory
• De-industrialisation
• Conservation and urban regeneration