Volunteer with us
Our volunteers make this digitisation programme possible! Not just on site here in Newcastle but all around the world doing transcription and proof reading. Contact us if you can spare a few hours a week.
The Common Room holds one of the largest, most comprehensive, public collections on mining engineering in the world.
It includes many early scientific and technical reports relating to the development of the coal industry and associated mechanical engineering, especially the early work on safety in mines. Prof Margaret Jacob, one of the world’s pre-eminent scholars of the Industrial Revolution, describes our collection as “One of the two most important collections in the world for the study of the birth of the Industrial Revolution”.
The collections also cover the development of the railways, geology and the social, economic and cultural history of the mining industry.
As well as over 35,000 printed books, we hold unique archives including photographs, manuscripts, maps, objects, underground plans and more!
To enable worldwide access to this important collection we are working on a programme of digitisation thanks to our funders and our fantastic volunteers. Our full online portal will be available in 2020 and will offer a searchable database of all of our digitised material.
Our volunteers make this digitisation programme possible! Not just on site here in Newcastle but all around the world doing transcription and proof reading. Contact us if you can spare a few hours a week.
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The collections were originally acquired by NEIMME who have gifted them to The Common Room to be housed, conserved and protected for the future.
Click below if you have an enquiry about whether we hold a specific item or if you are interested in donating materials to the collection.