ONSCREEN ACTION: a still image of a female member of staff sits at a reception desk in front of her is a diary a pot of pencils and a white telephone. Behind her is a red wall with dark wood bookcases filled with red and black lever arch A4 files. The camera pans out and moves to a glass front door with a large banner that reads Special Collections and Archives Uncover a unique resource. The banner has images of birds, coloured medieval manuscripts. The camera pans back to the still image of the female receptionist and fades into a still image of glass exhibition cases with blue bases and filled with paper artefacts. Along the back wall are three glass vitrine display cases filled with artefacts including books and papers with two large posters with exhibition introductions and information written on them. The camera pans to a still image of the reading room with glazed windows and doors within it are wooden desks and bookcases filled with books. The camera pans to a close-up image of rolled archival plans with cotton ties and identification tags. The camera then pans to an over the shoulder image of a female in a black and white striped long-sleeved top holding a pencil. She is writing on an A4 lined notepad consulting a book on a green foam bookrest. The books pages are weighted down with conservation bead weights. On the table is white mobile phone, a key, and a spare red pencil.
VOICEOVER: Hello and welcome to the Special Collections and Archives YouTube channel.
Special Collections and Archives is part of the University of Liverpool, and we are based in the ground floor Grove Wing of the Sydney Jones Library. We care for and make available in perpetuity the unique and distinctive collections of the University of Liverpool.
ONSCREEN ACTION: The camera moves to a closed vellum manuscript resting on a grey conservation book cushion with a conservation hoover nozzle resting next to the manuscript on the right of the cushion. The image fades out and fades into a black background with a framed piece of papyrus. The papyrus is frayed and is aged with six lines of black writing. The frame is brown with a cream picture mount the numbers NO 1303 are painted in gold lettering at the top of the frame. The image brown archive boxes from floor to ceiling. The camera cuts to a bookshelf of books with their spines pointing outwards some are incredibly old backed in tan or cream leather with gold writing and intricate patterns in a diamond formation.
VOICEOVER: The rich and varied collections held here span over two thousand years from the Oxyhynchus Papyrus dated AD 336 to the present day the archives contain over two linear miles of material, and we hold around one hundred thousand printed books. We hold collections of local, national, and international significance.
ONSCREEN ACTION: the camera cuts to a watercolour painting of a large classical cream limestone building with a portico and eight columns with steps leading up to the entrance. To the left there is a statue of a man on a horse in silhouette. Standing on the portico are two figures in blue and white. The camera moves to a bookshelf with large red and gold leather backed books, spine pointing out on their spines are printed in gold it states Letter book there are also numbered stickers on the spines in thick black ink numbered one through to eight. The camera cuts to an administrative ledger open, the ledger has black cursive handwriting with red margins. The camera pans to a sepia toned photograph of the original University Building including a gothic front turret and an ornate clocktower. The photograph fades out and a p black and white photograph of students in a lecture theatre comes into view. There are twenty-four men and one woman in the photograph. Most of the man are seated in tiered lecture theatre style banquette wooden seating some men stand in a doorway to the left of the image. The woman stands at the front holding a book. The men are wearing blazers, white shirts, and ties. The woman is in a long dress, thick stockings, and low-heeled black shoes. There is cream old-fashioned radiator behind her. The style is around 1940’s.
VOICEOVER: The University Archive includes administrative records personal papers of former staff and students and photographs and objects relating to the history and function of the University of Liverpool from its creation in 1881.
ONSCREEN ACTION: The camera moves to a closeup image of red leather-bound books with gold writing titled “Executive Committee Minutes” There is a scrolled patterned band around the top and bottom of the title with a geometric gold cross at the top of the binding. The image changes to a watercolour of two men in a sailing boat with cream sails waiving at a large cruise ship sailing in the background behind them. The sea is a violet blue. The sky is pale light blue with cream sunshine along the horizon. The camera pans down to show the men are sitting on the bowsprit (pole or beam) supporting the mast. The image fades and is replaced with an open typed manuscript. The font is a typewriter font in pale purple on thin white paper.
VOICEOVER: The Cunard Archive documents the administrative and operational history of the company and is a rich resource for maritime and business history.
ONSCREEN ACTION: The camera cuts to a bay in a storeroom with a rolling stack to the left and right filled with colourful books. The spines are facing outwards and there are cream paper bookmarks poking out of each book with numbers and letters written on them. There are pale yellow plastic encased fluorescent lights overhead. The floor is grey and tiled. The camera pans out and to a static image of awards/trophies there are six items in total. Three of the items are on large wooden blocks with silver plated inscriptions attached to them the trophies consist of two rocket shaped silver fixtures on top. One is a silver sculpture of a male head wearing a shirt and tie their features have been exaggerated the eyes protrude the hair is thinning and combed over and the jowls are drooping. The remaining three trophies /awards are two silver flying horses on black granite bases they are reminiscent of Pegasus and finally a gun metal hued demonic figure sitting on a metal base with hors and bat wings. The camera pans out to an image of illustrated and brightly coloured yellow and red “Astounding Stories” science fiction books in a clamshell blue open archival box. The image changes to a tightly framed image of a science fiction book cover title The World in Winter by John Christopher. The cover is pale blue with a black and white image of the Big Ben clock tower on the left and three black and grey hooded figures. One is walking with their head bowed, the remaining two have their faces pointing outwards to the reader one is male, and one is female. The author’s name is in thick black typeface and the title is in thick white typeface to the upper right of the cover. The image changes to a hand drawn diagram. Featuring horizontal lines depicting a time chart. The chart is drawn on squared mathematical cream paper and has been folded out concertina style. The timelines are coloured using coloured pencils in purple, green and red. The writing is in black ink.
VOICEOVER: We hold the largest catalogues collection of Science Fiction in Europe with over thirty-five thousand books which include fiction, non-fiction, fanzines, and critical journals. We also care for the literary and personal archives of some of the biggest names in Science Fiction including John Wyndham and Olaf Stapledon.
ONSCREEN ACTION: The image changes to a tightly framed shot of historic leather books on shelves with cream paper bookmarks coming from the top of them. The books range from cream, brown and yellow leather of varying thickness in the spines. There is a pale blue archival book sleeve surround in one of the books situated near the front of the shelf. The camera spans down from the top shelf to the next two shelves down. The image changes to a black and white print of classical architectural columns. Featuring two columns comparing the differing styles fluted and plain. The image changes to a black and white print from anatomical medical book. It shows two arms along the length of the page the top is holding a piece of wood with a cloth tourniquet tied around the upper arm. The veins are protruding and are lettered A, B, C, D, E, and I. below this arm is another arm outstretched holding a piece of wood with a cloth tourniquet tied around the upper arm. The veins are protruding, and are lettered H, G, G there is a small floating hand above the H pointing to the vein lettered H. the arm is titled fig 2 above it. The image fades into a black and white image of a n elaborately illustrated image of a person stood at a well in a flowing gown surrounded with foliage, mountains in the background and a fence in the foreground. The image has illustrated boarders of grapes and vines entwined. The image changes the camera pans up two shelves of brightly coloured and illustrated spines of leather-bound books. There is a closeup of two spines one of orange leather with green holly leaves and berries embossed along it and another of female figure with a gold halo behind her head wearing a Grecian styled draped dress, the titles are embossed in elaborate gold typeface “Girls Own”. The image switches to an open illuminated manuscript the first letter O is illuminated in gold, red, blue, and green with an intricate floral border down the left-hand side and top of the page.
VOICEOVER: The printed book collections include many landmark historic texts in Classical and English Literature, history, architecture, medicine, science, and travel strengths include the Knowsley Hall library, private press books and over seven thousand pre-World War One children’s books. The collections include over fifty medieval and Renaissance manuscripts including beautifully illuminated book of hours. We also hold significant collections of 15th and early 16th century printed books including two hundred and fifty volumes of incunables or books printed before 1501.
ONSCREEN ACTION: The film moves to a live recording of Special Collections and Archives webpage. The page is white with a top banner including exhibition information and four-square images for each collection catalogue. The page changes to the main catalogue page a white page with a watermark image of an archive store behind it. A search bar opens, and a search is entered into the bar bringing up the relevant archive hierarchy. The page feeds into the blog page titled “Manuscripts and More” there are multiple images for the most recent blogs which can be clicked on to read each blog. There is also a search bar on the right-hand side including a calendar to search for posts by date. The screen changes to a white screen with the Black university of Liverpool Logo including the shield with the liver birds.
VOICEOVER: The catalogues are available to search online making it easy to see the material held in the collections here. If you would like to keep up with the team we post regularly on our blog Manuscripts and More, which contains many interesting insights into the collections.
We hope that you enjoy checking our YouTube channel.
