• Keele students have created digital exhibits of romantic poems from books inside Tatton Park’s library; 
• The group of second year students completed the task as part of a module for their English Literature degrees; 
• The work is now online and available in the library at Tatton Park, which receives thousands of visitors per year.

Visitors to one of the country's most popular tourist attractions are finding out more about the book collection in its library – with help from English Literature students at Keele.

The library at Tatton Park, in Cheshire, contains more than 7,000 books, and is one of the largest and most important collections owned by the National Trust. A group of second-year English Literature students at Keele recently took part in a workshop with staff at the historic estate, after being tasked with producing digital exhibits of some of the romantic poems in the collection for a module assessment.

The students created easy-to-understand overviews of works by poets including William Wordsworth and Lord Byron that give visitors a bitesize breakdown of the poems. They have been published on Tatton Park's website, and are also being accessed by thousands of visitors to the library.

Dr Jonathon Shears, Reader in English, said: "Our students really enjoyed using their creativity and written communication skills to bring these books to life for visitors. It means visitors won't just walk through the library and see lots of books on the shelves, but they’re also able to see what’s inside them and understand the content as well."

Dr Rachel Adcock, Careers and Employability Director for the School of Humanities, said: "Creating the digital exhibits helped students to hone their ability to write engagingly and concisely with a particular audience in mind, and also increased their confidence that their skills can be deployed in a variety of contexts beyond the university. This project is a great example of the kind of employer engagement work being developed across the School of Humanities."