Presented as part of the University of Leicester library conference day on 13 June 2013, this is an overview of the Manufacturing Pasts project of digitising and creating OER learning materials from artefacts of 20th century industrial Britain.

1. www.le.ac.uk/library
Manufacturing Pasts: learning about
industrial change in twentieth
century Britain
Terese Bird, Learning Technologist/SCORE
Research Fellow
Library Conference Day, 13 June 2013

2. Objectives
• Increase use and understanding of primary
historical sources by students of modern British
industrial history
• By providing teachers/lecturers with online
resources which they can easily use and adapt
to fit with their teaching

3. What we did …
• Took Leicester as an example of the changing
British industrial city
• Digitised selected photographs, company
records, factory plans, newspaper
articles, maps, oral history interviews from
University and Record Office collections and
put them online
• Created learning resources based on them
• Created ‘toolkit’ on how to use the resources
Benjamin Russell, 1960s

4. Four themes …
• Social life of the factory
• The factory & the community
• De-industrialisation
• Conservation & urban regeneration

5. http://tinyurl.com/d4u3oc9
Making the history accessible

6. Making the history accessible - how
• Created a website on
top of the database
• Used social media
• Mobile devices
• iTunes U

7. www.le.ac.uk/manufacturingpasts

8. Manufacturing Pasts on iTunes U

9. Making the history accessible –to whom
• Researchers
• Urban History
students
• College students –
extended project
• Local community
• Local historians
• Digital humanities
scholars

10. Addressing needs of digital humanities researchers
Toolkit for researchers:
• Using visual sources in
historical research
• Using oral testimony in
historical research
• Provenance, judgment
Tools for students &
teachers:
• Glossary, reference
• How to make your own

11. Powerful examples
• Sound clip – ‘It was silent’
• Virtual tour: Historic and Industrial Leicester