Exeter’s museum and university open up digital collection

An exciting collaboration between Exeter’s museum and university is helping to ensure the museum’s incredible collections are available for use by everyone.

The partnership between RAMM and the GLAM-E Lab at the University of Exeter, will help spread awareness of incredible artworks and ensure the public can use them for free and without permission.

For the past year, RAMM staff have been working with the GLAM-E Lab and Exeter Law School students to make their collections open access for all.

This will allow people around the world to make new cultural discoveries and raise RAMM’s profile. It is just the 9th UK cultural institution to adopt open access for all digital collections.

Cultural institutions often claim and enforce rights over the reproduction images of works in their collections. This means they refuse requests for the use of the images or charge high fees. This can impede free and creative expression, especially when copyright in the artwork has expired.

GLAM-E Lab researchers are working to support museums to embrace open access. Their work with the RAMM has led to the museum publishing their reproduction images under an open licence that ensures the images join other materials in the public domain and can be used by anyone for any purpose.

Julien Parsons, RAMM Collections Team Manager and part of the Co-Leadership Team, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to announce RAMM’s open access strategy which we envision will make our public domain collections available to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment.

“We believe that open access assists RAMM to fulfil its central purpose. Adopting an open access approach lets users access digitised collections and contribute to the rich cultural heritage of Exeter, regardless of where they are. We want people to be inspired, informed and entertained by RAMM’s collection and to use them to foster individual creativity. We recognise the importance of providing knowledge and information to the public to advance our mission and to unlock new cultural discoveries.”

The images can be accessed here.

* The image shown was painted by Olive Wharry who was an artist and suffragette and active in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1910-1914. The cathedral was bombed on 4 May, 1942.