From June, the National Youth Work Collection will be housed in a new space connected to the university's Kimberlin Library and features donations from the National Youth Agency, which has gifted much of its youth work library to the collection.
The collection was launched at an event at De Montfort University that celebrated 50 years of youth work training in Leicester.
It will also build on the donation of publications that date back to the 1960s from visiting professor of youth and community at De Montfort University Bernard Davies.
The university will be seeking to add to and develop the collection with the support of associates and alumni to ensure important collections at risk of being lost or dispersed are preserved for the future.
Sarah Hargreaves, head of youth and community at De Montfort University, said: "Historians might argue that we are formed by our past and can learn from it. Certainly this is the thinking behind the launch of the National Youth Work Collection at De Montfort University.
"The collection will be important for the future of youth work. The impact of this collection cannot be overstated. The opportunity for researchers, students and policy makers to continue to shape the direction of youth work policy is something I know we all strive for and we intend to employ a research associate to assist the archivist with cataloguing documents, to make it into a working collection for study for years to come."
The university is seeking to recruit a research assistant to undertake some initial work on the collection, at a cost of approximately £7,000.
The collection will be available to external researchers and scholars as well as De Montfort University staff and students.
If you wish to make a contribution towards the cost of the development of the collection, or are interested in donating any relevant materials, contact Sarah Hargreaves at shargreaves@dmu.ac.uk.
