About
The MVLS Virtual Microscopy Catalogue is a searchable catalogue of digitised teaching slides from the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences' virtual microscopy archive. It brings together slides scanned over many years of teaching across anatomy, pathology, veterinary medicine, and related subjects into a single, searchable index.
The catalogue is intended for teaching staff, demonstrators, course organisers, and archive curators, who can search by organ, species, stain, and other metadata to find and review slides for teaching use. Where access to the underlying full-resolution image files is needed, users can request access separately (see Request Share Access).
For a breakdown of what's in the archive — slide counts, annotations, and curation status by collection — see the Archive Reconciliation Summary. For a breakdown by organ and tissue instead, see the Organ & Tissue Census.
For how the catalogue protects content-provider copyright, restricts human specimen material under the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006, and de-identifies clinical imaging metadata, see Content Protection Safeguards.
Acknowledgements
The MVLS Virtual Microscopy Archive represents a collaborative effort spanning over a decade. This collection of teaching histology slides and associated digital resources would not have been possible without the generous support, expertise, and dedication of the following individuals and organisations.
Equipment and Financial Support
The digitisation of the slide collection was made possible through the acquisition of two state-of-the-art slide scanners. The SCN400 scanner was purchased with financial support from the National Education for Scotland (NES) and Scottish Dental Education Online (SDEO), under the invaluable support and advocacy of Prof Jeremy Bagg, Head of the Dental School at the time of acquisition. A Hamamatsu slide scanner was generously provided by Clare Orange, then working in Cancer Science, whose technical expertise and institutional knowledge proved invaluable to the project. Clare is now an Honorary Lecturer in the University.
Collection Organisation and Curation
Mr David Russell, Chief Anatomy Technician, undertook the painstaking work of organising and curating the slide collection. His intimate knowledge of the historical archive and meticulous attention to detail proved essential to the successful recovery and cataloguing of the collection.
Anatomy and Physiology Slide Collections
Dr Ian Montgomery curated the physiology slide collection, which includes early material donated by H. S. D. Garven (also recorded as Gairns), a histologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow's Institute of Physiology, and former Professor and Vice-Principal of Mukden Medical College in Manchuria. The collections stretch back over many decades, and include an excellent archive of sections selected by generations of histologists as some of the best examples of tissue and organ histological features.
Project Leadership and Sponsorship
This project was initiated circa 2013 and sponsored by Prof Alan Jardine, then Head of the Medical School. Prof Jardine's vision and institutional support were crucial in establishing the project and securing resources for its completion. We are deeply grateful for his leadership and note his recent passing with great sadness.
Expert Advisors and Content Development
We were privileged to engage two Honorary Lecturers who brought extensive experience and expertise to the project: Dr David Jenkinson and Dr Hugh Elder. Both experienced physiologists and histologists with longstanding experience of teaching with the slide collection, they provided invaluable guidance on content organisation, annotation standards, and pedagogical approach. Their deep knowledge of the material and teaching practice helped ensure that the recovered archive serves current and future educational needs.
The recovery and digitisation of this historic teaching collection represents a significant undertaking, and we are grateful to all who have contributed to its success.