Digital Special Collections
- The special collections can always be accessed by everybody and from any location in the world by using the internet. With Digital Special Collections on http://disc.leidenuniv.nl you are only a mouse click away from medieval manuscripts, rare atlases, unique prints and many other treasures. Until recently these works could only be studied on demand, if requested in the Special Collections Reading Room in the library.
- Tens of Thousands of digital objects
- Digital Special Collections contains more than 50,000 images and 100,000 descriptions of manuscripts, letters, archives, rare books, prints, drawings, photographs, photographica, maps, atlases and oriental collections.
- Search options for extensive information
- You can search for specific collections by using key words or browsing through categories. You will find information on size, origin, acquisition, content and compilation details of the collections. There are extensive descriptions of over a hundred collections, and some of these even contain a detailed inventory. Each object is supplied with a link, which you can use in your own (web)texts as a direct reference.
This short manual (pdf) will help you to find your way in the Digital Special Collections.
- Virtual research
- Where available you can view images of such objects as prints or transcriptions of letters. These images have several options which can be used to research the material virtually. You can zoom in and out to view details on maps and pages can be placed side by side to compare texts.
- More intensive use of special collections
- Our expectation is that the use of the objects in the special collections for educational purposes and research will increase due to the easy access through the internet and the new search options. Another advantage is that the vulnerable objects in these collections can now be studied intensively and frequently without a high risk of damage from physical contact. Naturally, it will remain possible to examine the actual objects for teaching and research in the Special Collections reading room in the Leiden University Library.
