Archives and Special Collections

Opening hours

Monday - Closed 
Tuesday - Friday 9am-4pm

Closure periods for the academic year 2024/25:

• Christmas: Thursday 19th December 2024 - Wednesday 1st January 2025
• Easter: Thursday 17th April 2025 - Monday 21st April 2025
• Bank holidays.

Contact Us

Karen Backhouse, Special Collections Librarian

Email: backhok@hope.ac.uk or specialcollections@hope.ac.uk

Phone: 0151 291 2027

The Sheppard-Worlock Library
Hope Park
Liverpool Hope University
Hope Park
L16 9JD

No. 34 on the Map of Hope Park Campus.

Hope Digital Collections

Instagram: @livhopelibrary

Twitter: @LivHopeLibrary

Wordpress: Realms of Gold: Archives & Special Collections at Liverpool Hope University

Visitors

External visitors may access Archives & Special Collections, however, if you require a period of continued access, over several visits for research purposes, you will need to complete a Library visitor application form. Further information can be found Visiting the library.

Make an appointment

To access the archives and rare books it is necessary to make an appointment to view the material under supervision in the Reading Room. Reasonable access is provided within a framework of regulations designed to preserve rare, valuable and fragile materials. We aim to enable the widest possible use of our collections by students and staff, however, not everything is accessible. Further details can be found on the Restricted Access page.

How to find material

Quick links

A-Z of Collections - an A-Z list of all our archives and special collections with full descriptions.

OneSearch - The Library catalogue for searching catalogued books and collection-level descriptions of the archive collections.

Map of Special Collections (pdf) - Books located in the Radcliffe, Gradwell or the Andrew F. Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity collections are housed in Archives & Special Collections. These are accessible during the standard opening hours, 9am-4pm, Tuesday to Friday. Individually-named collections in The Sheppard-Worlock Library, although shelved separately from the main collection, are openly accessible during library opening hours.

Hope Digital Collections - Many of our archive catalogues are now digitised and available to search online on the Hope Digital Collections platform. Some archive collections contain digital content and may be viewed online, and there are images taken from our rare book collections under Themed Galleries.

Printed catalogues - For uncatalogued collections there are lists on Excel spreadsheets available to download. These include lists of contents for archive collections not yet digitised, and subject headings for uncatalogued book collections.

Online Resources - External databases to help you find archives in other institutions and online guides with tips on how to use archives in your research.

Donations

Donations form an important role in the acquisition of archives and special collections and can range in scale from a few books donated by one person to entire libraries or collections by organisations or societies. Consideration will be given to the collecting policies of other institutions acquiring the same or related subject areas and consultations will take place where conflicts of interest may arise to avoid unnecessary duplication and the waste of resources.

Other practical issues must also be considered. Donations will not be accepted if:

• there are signs of mould and/or pest infestations
• they are of a particularly specialist nature, requiring skills or equipment beyond our available resources to preserve, exploit or interpret e.g. video or audio cassettes that need technology, now obsolete, to access
• they comprise wholly or largely of photocopies or facsimiles of original material except in exceptional circumstances e.g. if the original has been destroyed and no other version exists. This is to ensure compliance with UK Copyright Law
• they are PhD theses without a signed consent form from the author
• if suitable space is not available.

Small donations will be assessed by the Director of Library Services, the Special Collections Librarian and/or the appropriate Subject Librarian(s). Academic staff with appropriate subject knowledge may also be consulted.

Large scale donations would be referred by the Director of Library Services to University Senior Managers and, normally, a visit would be arranged by library staff to assess the collection together with appropriate academic staff with subject expertise. A recommendation would then be made to the Senior Executive Team as to the value of the collection and its relevance to Hope’s research interests.

A formal agreement indicating whether the materials are a gift or on loan to the university must be signed by the donor before a collection is accepted. The terms of the agreement can be reviewed by the donor and adjustments made subject to the approval of the Director of Library Services and the Head of Legal Services, Governance and Risk. More information is available in the A&SC Collection Development and Management Policy.