A publication coordinated by lecturer in History of Science at the University of Valencia Pedro Ruiz-Castell lays claim to the social and cultural value of university collections. The work entitled Beyond Public Engagement, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, highlights the opportunities offered by academic heritage beyond dissemination to the general public.
The volume Beyond Public Engagement. New Ways of Studying, Managing and Using University Collections consists of a selection of articles based on the papers presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the European Academic Heritage Network Universeum. The work rediscovers collections, reflects on how to maximise resources and deals with approaches to and new uses of these materials.
Academic collections have played a fundamental role in the production of knowledge: "they represent very valuable resources for studying the construction of identities and traditions that are particularly interesting to understand how universities have influenced the way in which societies have taken shape", asserts Pedro Ruiz-Castell.
One of the basic functions of university collections has been scientific dissemination. However, according to the researcher, "this is one of the fundamental aspects, but there are others that should be strengthened". In this regard, "the complexity of university heritage encompasses a variety of issues that are connected with elements that go beyond the public sphere", he concludes.
Lecturer Pedro Ruiz-Castell considers it necessary to insist on the need to value these assets and to facilitate their interpretation. In his opinion, this "particularly affects the collections of the University of Valencia, the importance and potential of which is evident from the contribution made to the work by Professor of Art History at this university Rafael Gil Salinas".
Some of these collections are especially remarkable, such as the manuscripts and incunabula of the Historical Library, those of the Museum of Geology and the Botanical Garden, the painting collection Martínez Guerricabeitia, the glyptic collection of carvings and cameos and the collections of engravings, posters, numismatics, archaeology, historical photography and medical and scientific instruments.
Pedro Ruiz-Castell teaches in the Department of History of Science at the University of Valencia. After completing his doctoral degree in History of Science at Oxford University, he worked for several years as the head of the Department of Research and Documentation at the National Museum of Science and Technology. His research and publications focus on the history of physics and science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, science in the public sphere and scientific instruments.
Pedro Ruiz-Castell (ed.), Beyond Public Engagement. New Ways of Studying, Managing and Using University Collections, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015, 151 pages.
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