THE Ashmolean Museum’s collection spans more than 10,000 years and contains over a million objects, documented in paper records covering more than 330 years.

Now staff at the Beaumont Street attraction are preparing to showcase a large number of ancient artefacts on screen by making them available online.

If visitors are unable to make it to the museum they will be able to research artefacts online, with about 250,000 objects being made available by 2020.

The Ashmolean is one of a number of Oxford University museums where digitisation projects have been taking place.

In 2015 at the Ashmolean a Digital Collections programme was established with the aim of creating cross-searchable digital records.

Now the museum’s initial target is to make 250,000 objects available online by 2020.

Museum director Xa Sturgis said: “’At its opening in 1683, the Ashmolean was the world’s first public museum, a beacon of learning for a newly scientific age. The Ashmolean’s collections span the civilisations of East and West, charting the aspirations of mankind from the Neolithic era to the present day. We continue to be a beacon of learning in the 21st century and we want to make our world class collections available to the widest possible audience, now and in the future. The museum, by making its collections available online, is now expanding its engagement with a global public: onsite, offsite and online.”

A spokeswoman added that the current Collections Online, launched in 2018, was still in its early stages and consisted of a selection of object records from across the Museum’s curatorial departments.

She added: “These range from basic inventory-level records with object type, image and accession number, to catalogue records that are cross-searchable by date, place, material, person, period and dimensions.

“We will be adding and updating online records every month. A number of separate, subject-specific databases remain available here and will gradually be incorporated into the main Collections Online.

“Other projects in progress include the digitisation of the Egyptian collection.”

The Ashmolean already has a number of online collections of its work, which it refers to as legacy online collections, as these are no longer updated.

These include images of work by the Dutch painter and printmaker Rembrandt, art by the Pre-Raphaelites and artefacts from the Percy Manning Collection.

Staff at the Bodleian Library have been at the forefront of digitisation projects and last year launched online an archive of the work of Victorian photographer William Henry Fox Talbot, three years after it was bought for £2.2m.

Mr Talbot, who lived from 1800 to 1877, was one of the greatest all-rounders of the Victorian age, and is considered by many to be the father of photography.

Some of the first photos taken of Oxford feature in the archive, including one of The Queen’s College in High Street. Staff at the Bodleian launched the online resource, bringing together the complete works of the pioneer, at foxtalbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. For more on the digitisation programme at the Ashmolean visit collections.ashmolean.org