Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Josh Reid, I am 21 years old and a current student of Education Studies at Liverpool Hope University. I was in the very fortunate position of being able to apply for a role as a Special Collections Digitisation Officer in February 2023, as a part of the Student Service Award. The Student Service Award is an opportunity for students to gain professional skills in an academic setting to enhance students’ CVs and employability prospects after university life. The opportunity allows students to learn transferable skills, gain valuable experience and confidence, as well as building a network with potential future employers.
This project aimed to begin the creation of digital content of Hope’s collections for the up-and-coming new digital asset management system. This will provide a, much anticipated, way for researchers to engage with digital collections.
My role within this project was to digitise and preserve medieval manuscript fragments in the Radcliffe Collection belonging to Liverpool Cathedral. My journey took place in The Sheppard-Worlock Library’s Archives and Special Collections. My first task was to identify the manuscript fragments from the collection and create records on Excel spreadsheet using the information from the rudimentary catalogue listing and enhancing with added information from the items themselves. Whilst progressing through this first task, my next was to digitise the fragments by taking photographs of the individual leaves using a Canon EOS 70 D camera. I then uploaded these images to the PC and using image editing software, Photoshop and Paint.net, I cropped and orientated each image. After this process, I assigned each image with a reference number and added this to the Excel spreadsheet. I also added any descriptive information from the catalogued record to the properties of each image.
This work gave me great insight into the history of the medieval period. By being able to visualise and actually have hands-on access to texts written on parchment that date from the 9th century to 15th century was a surreal experience. Every session felt like being in my own miniaturised museum that I was allowed to explore and make discoveries of my own.
To conclude this piece, I have enjoyed my time spent in Archives and Special collections and I’m very grateful for all the help and support I received during this time. I have gained valuable skills that can be applied to my university work as well as to my future prospects outside of university life. I was particularly pleased to be able to complete the digitisation within the timeframe of the Student Service Award project and look forward to seeing them online.
by Joshua Reid, June 2023
Realms of Gold 