Earlier this year Cambridge Digital Library was really excited to launch a digitisation competition with the aim of uncovering some new treasures in the collections of University of Cambridge Libraries.
The competition was open to entries from staff working in the libraries, but in future we hope to be able to also run a competition open to all our readers and users as well.
We’ve whittled the entries down to a short list of ten, and they’re all so fantastic that we need your help picking the winners!
To view the short-listed entries please click the links below:
Voting took place at a pop-up exhibition, via social media and via an online vote. We had a really fantastic response which exceeded our expectations - there were a total of 366 votes and the result is a close one!
Now to the exciting bit, and we've got a joint third situation, so we're actually going to be digitising four of the entries!
So in joint third place, each with 43 votes, we have:
- Entry No. 2 - The Golden Book of the CUMC (submitted by Anna Pensart at the Pendlebury Library of Music).
- Entry No. 3 - The Portolan Chart of the Aegean Sea (submitted by Ian Pittock in the UL's Map Department).
Coming in second with 44 votes we have:
- Entry No. 5 - The paintings and Drawings of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (submitted by Emma Saunders in the UL's Archives and Modern Manuscripts Dept.)
And in first place with a whopping 52 votes:
- Entry No. 7 - Rockets, confetti and eggshells used in 1897 protests (submitted by Sian Collins from the UL's Archives and Modern Manuscripts Dept.)
We'll be getting in touch with the winners soone to start getting the real work started, and with the other short listed entrants to offer them a behind the scenes peak at what we do!
Thank you to everyone for getting involved, from those who entered, all those who helped by sharing social media posts and spreading the word and to everyone that voted.
Keep your eyes peeled on @CamDigLib for updates of these exciting projects!
– Come and vote for your favorite items to be digitised! –
Where: Milstein Seminar Rooms, Cambridge University Library (through the main exhibition centre)
When: Tuesday 27th March 2018, from 1:30 - 3:00 pm
Who: This event will be open to all, we'd love to see you there!
Finally, each entry will be scored by the University Librarian, Dr Jessica Gardner, who will be considering the following factors:
• Is the item unique?
• Is there something distinctive about it?
• Is it quirky or fun?
• Does it shine light on a hidden collection?
• Would digitisation provide added research value?
• Does it deserve a spotlight but might not attract other funding to digitise-
We will then combine all the scores for each entry and the top three will be digitised and added to Cambridge Digital Library!