Playing the Archive: From the Opies to the Digital Playground (UCL Press, 2025) reflects on a major study inspired by the work of citizen scholar folklorists Iona and Peter Opie.

The book explores how the Opie Archive was made publicly available online by the project through digital images, innovative cataloguing and playful digital media interfaces, such as a red telephone kiosk at the Young V&A.

Chapters analyse the practice of collecting evidence of new and old forms of play on today’s playgrounds using state-of-the-art digital methods.