Since the millennium, the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) has undertaken a range of digitisation projects to make Heritage Library and Archives collections accessible online. However, a new organisational strategy in 2021, driven by the aim to become a digital‑first organisation and improve access to College information and knowledge services, combined with a new public engagement programme, led to a shift towards prioritising digitisation for enhanced engagement with members, staff, and wider public audiences.
To support this work, RCS England launched several fundraising efforts. These included a successful 2024 application for a digitisation grant, which enabled the digitisation of key items regularly used in public engagement, and raising internal funding to digitise the College’s Council Minutes from 1880 to 1992. The adoption of a new DAM system further strengthened this work, offering improved searchability, tools for curated digital exhibitions, and a platform that could combine digitised content with born‑digital material such as oral history recordings.
This transformation has also highlighted challenges. Technical issues emerged when integrating digital resources spanning more than two decades, a period during which digitisation methods and digital preservation standards evolved significantly. Ethical questions have also had to be considered, especially regarding the digitisation of sensitive medical records. Some of our most used collections include graphic images of patients at some of the most vulnerable and painful moments in their lives. This is the case, for example, with Harold Gillies’ collection of patient records from World War I soldiers who underwent reconstructive facial surgery using pioneering surgical techniques still used today and that would later be used by Gillies to perform the first gender affirming surgery.
RCS England must balance increased access with responsible stewardship. The organisation faces key questions: how do we present specialist medical collections in a way that is approachable and meaningful to non‑medical audiences; how do we manage sensitive material ethically; and how do we plan future digitisation and digital preservation work sustainably while minimising environmental impact.