The slide collection includes over 120,000 slides on all aspects of art, architecture, design and media, together with examples of contextual material such as social history, popular culture, science, technology and the environment. The collection was developed over several decades and includes a mixture of commercially acquired slides and those manufactured under the Design and Artists' Copyright Society (DACS) copyright licence, which allows us to photograph illustrations from books. These slides are available for loan to RCA staff and students who are members of the Library for use in internal College lectures, seminars and presentations.
As in-house processing of slide film has now ceased, the collection is no longer added to, but staff and students are still welcome to browse the collection and borrow slides. We are also pleased to offer guidance on locating and using high-quality and copyright-cleared digital image resources.
Staff and students of the College are welcome to come and browse the slide collection just as you would browse books in the main library. The collection is within the Digitisation & Images Services department, which is open Monday to Friday, 10.00am-1.00pm in term time. If you wish to borrow slides (up to 40 slides per week) there are a few simple procedures, as described below. A member of staff will be happy to assist. First-time users are required to sign a copyright disclaimer.
Slides are filed in hanging plastic wallets in filing cabinets arranged by subject and can be easily browsed. Lightboxes are in place above all cabinets. A database of over 10,000 artists, designers and architects represented in the collection has been compiled and can be searched in the Digitisation & Image Services room. Please ask a member of staff if you need help with your search.
Please note the Design and Artists' Copyright Society (DACS) licence, which is used to make many of the slides, does not currently allow for the reproduction of slides in digital or other form. Any slide produced in-house and added to our collection must be covered by the DACS licence, or individually cleared with the copyright owner of that particular image.