We are very proud of our significant collection of tweed pattern books from the Scottish Borders industry dating from 1836 to the 1990s. However Covid closures, combined with the fragile nature of some early volumes (even though they had been conserved), has meant that we wanted to digitise some to provide easier access. The TownsWeb award has produced very high quality images of early and more modern tweed to allow remote access. We have been collaborating with the JSTOR Community Collections project and the images should be on our site very soon. This year also marks the centenary of the birth of Bernat Klein who produced innovative fabric inspired by the colours of nature in the 1960s and the images will form part of our exhibition.

Helen Taylor – University Archivist