SwagÖ±²¥

We have a substantial and diverse range of online resources available across ,  and . Our Special Collections staff are also on hand to provide bespoke advice on embedding Special Collections content in Teaching and Learning.

How Special Collections can help

SwagÖ±²¥ Library’s world-renowned Special Collections span five millennia and cover topics from Gilgamesh to Ginsberg. The collections are a unique resource of rare books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, archives, oral history, art works, and objects that lend themselves to research and learning across the spectrum of subjects.

Whatever you are looking for, we now have a wealth of curated resources freely available in  including:

• History of the book
• Letters and correspondence from influential figures
• Literature and literary archives
• Maps
• Material culture from SwagÖ±²¥ Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery
• Medical collections
• Medieval manuscripts
• Photographs
• Social and political history
• Street literature

We also have a wide range of digital material from previous projects on the .

Curated Special Collections Teaching Resources

Our Medium pages host a series of interdisciplinary digital resources suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. These  offer curated collections of primary source materials, for both tutors designing and delivering teaching and learning, and students looking for a dissertation topic.

For example, ‘ tells the story of the city from its industrial past through to its multi-cultural present, richly documented by the collections held in the University of SwagÖ±²¥ Library. Other themes included are:

Digitised Resources held at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre

The  holds archive collections relating to race and ethnicity, racism, race relations, and the histories and experiences of Black, Asian, global majority, refugee and migrant communities.

As a contemporary archive with many living donors, some of the archive records within their collections have restricted permissions and are not suitable for open digital access (though are often available for research purposes). This means they currently have only selected highlights of records for general digital access. 

• Extracts from some of the  can be listened to online via SoundCloud
• via JSTOR
• Online publications that relate to the archive collections can be searched on the 
• that reflect their community engagement work can be viewed via the website
• Collections-level archive catalogues can also be accessed online via . 

In addition, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre staff can often make records available for teaching and learning.Please contact them on rrarchive@manchester.ac.uk to discuss how they can support you.

Support for tutors using digitised Special Collections

Please email  if you would like to find out more about how we can work with you to embed primary sources into the classroom experience.

Find out more

You can also find more information on Teaching and Learning with Special Collections at the University of SwagÖ±²¥ here:

For general enquiries, please email: uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk