| Description | Incomplete sequence of student handbooks produced by Mason College and the University of Birmingham. Early handbooks of Mason University College and the University of Birmingham were produced by the students Christian Union. The first issue was for 1897-1898. They contained information about student societies and facilities, but were primarily intended to publicise the existence and aims of the Christian Union to new students. Responsibility for the handbook was taken over by the Guild in 1908, with the intention of producing a guide to represent the student body as a whole. See UB/GUILD/D/1/2/6 for further details. There are no surviving handbooks for the period between 1906 and 1930, and the report of the Secretary of the Guild suggests that no handbooks were produced between 1906 and 1909. See UB/GUILD/D/1/4/9 for this report. Handbooks from the 1930s give an insight into the number and type of student societies active at the time, as well as the facilities for students in the Guild building at Edgbaston and at the Guild Club for students studying at the Edmund Street site.
No year books were published during the Second World War due to paper and printing shortages. The functions of the year book were incorporated in detailed Guild Diaries. See UB/GUILD/E/6 for holdings of Guild Diaries. The first edition of the 'long-promised' Guild handbook was published for the 1954-55 session, containing details of the Guild and the privileges of membership, and was made available free to all freshers. Black and white photographs were used for the first time to illustrate the handbook, and information was given about facilities in the Union building, but there is little information about societies and student groups. From 1967-1968 the covers of the handbooks are illustrated with photographs of students or buildings on the Edgbaston campus and details about societies are given once more. The inside pages of the handbooks are illustrated with photographs, and most years between 1967-1968 and 1980-1981 contain information about the aims, functions and activities of all existing student societies, and some handbooks also give the names of society officers. These handbooks are a useful resource for the study of changing and developing student interests during the period, and provide evidence of the existence of societies for which no records are known to survive. Handbooks from the 1970s and 1980s also contain information about Community Action committee projects in Birmingham with which students were involved, and about social and leisure facilities in Birmingham city centre and the southern suburbs.
There are further gaps in the sequence between 1992-1993 and 1997-1998, and from 1998 to 2007. By 1997 the handbook had ceased to contain the kind of detailed information compiled in previous years, and the 1997-1998 issue is entitled a 'directory'. This contains very basic information about Guild services and societies. By 2007 the handbook focuses on the benefits of Guild membership, and contains very little information about Guild societies. It is assumed that more detailed information of the kind that used to appear in the handbooks was now available on the Guild website. |