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This is the library.
I'm looking like a spy through the blinds.
There's no one going 'shush' and it's quite high-tech.
I see something called a digilab over there.
And there are rows and rows and rows of guess what?
Books. There's a lot them.
But it's also the archive at the Open University
and this lady loitering in the background here,
Lorna Maguire...
I won't shake your hand because you're purified.
You're in charge of other things here.
The actual archivist is galavanting away somewhere at the moment.
She's off on a jolly at the moment.
Have you noticed a lot of people at the OU have lots of holidays?
It's a very quiet time at the moment.
You've got some things out here.
This is the university archive.
Although it's situated in the library itself,
it is actually responsible for looking after and preserving
the archives across the whole of the university.
I thought you were going to say universe then.
One day.
You'd look a lot more tired than what you do.
Perhaps.
But it is a particularly unique role
so we're very fortunate to have quite a number
of very special collections within the university archive
which we want to make accessible.
You've got some bits and bobs relevant to the university itself.
For those not in the know,
I know of people who have studied with the OU so I know about Sesame,
the paper that's still in circulation.
Look at it. It looks all old and aged and it's actually younger than me.
Only just by about a month.
This is a copy kept, the very first issue in the archives
along with Betty Boothroyd's speaking engagements.
Now I saw Betty Boothroyd at Birmingham giving out degrees.
Is that what she does now?
She does indeed. I'm not quite sure, I think she's retired now.
Maybe this was her last one.
Yes, but we're very fortunate to have her entire collection of diaries,
papers and so on which she donated to the university archive.
So is the archive in this building as well?
It is. This is the only unique environment for archives
across the whole of the university.
We have a deep store just behind you.
When you say deep store, I picture the very last scene
of Indiana Jones when they drop that case in a big warehouse.
Not quite. It is a bit of a cold environment, a cold-air environment
just to make sure that stuff doesn't go manky.
You've got some photography as well.
Now this looks like it's on a film set. It looks staged.
It's This Is Your Life with Eamonn Andrews,
one of the first ones that was produced
with Jennie Lee there.
Jennie Lee, to those that don't know.
One of the first women MPs, the first minister of arts
and very instrumental in putting the Open University concept together.
As were Labour as a party themselves with Harold Wilson.
There's lots of political archives and bits and bobs.
And Aneurin Bevan was Jennie Lee's husband
and he was instrumental in putting the NHS together.
I'm looking at that picture there. Is that the actual thing in the picture?
This is the original, one of the originals.
I'm not sure how many's left.
It looks like it's made of Lego but this won awards, didn't it?
It did in 1970, a design award.
For a compact, home-use microscope
so that people could study all kinds of exciting things
in the comfort of their own home.
It was revolutionary at the time
because the idea is that all the kits went out into the homes
so people could study as a student in the comfort of their own home.
So everything had to be manufactured to suit that
and here we have one of the first handouts in 1972
with the microscope on the front.
Being used actively next to the kitchen sink there.
Lord knows what he's looking at. It looks like exciting mould.
I'm sure we know just about as much as we would want to know about that.
That's fantastic. So over here you've got all kinds of bits and bobs
and I see some work in action at the moment.
This is actually a photograph of the first degree ceremony.
That's Jennie Lee.
She's got a very distinctive hairstyle.
But part of what the university archive is doing now
is actually opening up access to wider audiences,
people across the net.
And one of the projects that we're doing at the moment
is to digitalise thousands of photographs that we have
in the archive at the moment.
And how do you that? Do you scan the negatives on a flatbed?
Or have you got a negative scanner?
No, I just scan the print images using the scanner.
Do you have to go really high resolution
or do you just do it for the web?
No, we do medium resolution.
So if people do want to do another print off it, you can do?
That's right.
With the use of the monster scanner and all the other bits and bobs
that are going on here, once that's all scanned and done,
will it be on the internet for the whole world to see?
Absolutely, to everybody.
We've already got some really interesting archival stuff
on our OpenLearn website.
Excellent.
Let's hope that you get through all the millions of bits and bobs
before the anniversary that's coming up soon.
Thank you very much for your time.