A Century in Print: Exploring Student Life Through University of Reading’s Magazines (Part 1)

In this two-part blog, Claudia Ricci, Metadata and Collections Manager Librarian (Museums and Collections), explores the student magazines and University serial publications held in the Reading University Reserve Collection and University History Collection.

With the University’s centenary fast approaching, we have taken the opportunity to delve into our institutional collections in search of material that could shed light on student life at Whiteknights and London Road campuses over the decades and provide a better insight into the university experience as lived by generations past.

As part of the Special Collections library team, I am responsible for cataloguing and making available the printed and published parts of our university history collections. Recently I have been exploring the Reading University Reserve collection, which the University  library has been curating since the 1950s. It includes publications by and about the University – its departments, centres, institutes and estates – as well as materials from the Students’ Union and student societies. It also features research by and about Reading academics and alumni, along with printed information resulting from events held at the University, such as conferences and exhibitions. This collection now sits within our Special Collections, due to its historical value to researchers, who can request both monographs and serials from the RUR collection and consult them in our reading room at Redlands Road.

Among the collection’s shelves – arranged by subject and mirroring the open shelves of the main University library – is a sequence of periodical titles that stands out for its variety. They range from neatly bound volumes of the University Calendars and the Official Gazette, to rows of colourful boxes of the Students’ Union newspapers, such as Spark and Shell, and rare examples of student-produced zines, either typescript or handwritten, with faded carbon-copied ink and hand-designed covers.

For the benefit of our researchers, alumni and current university members, I will attempt to  list the types of serials and student magazines that are to be found in the R.U. Reserve Periodical collection:

• Official publications relating to general administration, mainly issued by the University for internal use and public accountability, e.g. Proceedings, Gazette, List of full-time and postgraduate students, Calendars, Degree lists, Annual reports and accounts, Notices to new students – dating back to the foundation of University College Reading in 1892. And publications aimed at promoting the University to new cohorts of students, such as booklets about University Halls, The Students’ handbook and The general Prospectus (including departmental prospectuses) – dating back to 1907!
• Official administrative publications issued by individual departments/schools/faculties, e.g. prospectuses, handbooks and bulletins; newsletters, syllabus booklets, including the Guide to the university farms, subject guides issued by the library, and handbooks promoting other services on campus (Career advisory service, Computer Unit, Chaplaincy, Evening classes and Adult education courses)

  

• Periodicals issued by the Student Union (RUSU): official titles, such as the Sports and clubs handbook, the Diaries, or the Welfare handbook; and “less official” magazines, e.g. the Students Rag (first issued by the Rags committee in 1926!), Rattler and Matrix (issued in both standard and “executive” editions!). The Shell and Spark stand out for their longevity and regular pattern in comparison with most other student magazines. The Shell, which took its title from the three scallops featuring in the University’s coat of arms (originating from Reading abbey’s arms), was published continuously for 50 years (1934-1984) and continued as New shell and Splat until 1986. It then morphed into Spark, a weekly, freely distributed newspaper, which is still popular in digital format, albeit issued less frequently: Home | The Spark. Our print run ends with the June 2015 issue and is incomplete, particularly around the years 1997-2004 – donations to fill our gaps would be particularly welcome!

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  Tamesis (1910 – 1973), with its predecessor, “The students’ magazine of University College, Reading” (1900-1910), was, for many years, the only official journal of the UoR staff and students, aimed at both internal and external audiences. The very first attempt at a University’s official organ was the Journal of Reading College issued 1894-1900. We have complete runs of all three titles, as well as The Reading University College review (1908-1916), as they must have been published in large print-runs and supplied to all the institutes and libraries.

• A variety of serials were issued for the benefit of staff at the university, both official and centrally-distributes titles such as the Bulletin and The Staff journal; and more informal channels of communication, probably aimed at staff, students and the wider local community: e.g. London Road Newsletter, The white knight, and Carol service for the university; which, together with Pulse and The University diary, acted as notice and event boards in the same way as the Staff Portal and social media provide alerts and information for us today.
• Organs of the various Alumni associations, the first of which dates back to 1914 (Old students’ news, later Old students’ magazine, when the body was referred to as the Old Students’ Association, presumably made up of a small number of people, who knew one another) and its successors, aimed at an increasingly large  group of people associated with the University of Reading (Alumni and friends, Reading Reading, Connected: magazine for alumni and friends)

Continue Exploring…

Discover more in the lead up to our Centenary Year in 2026.

🔗 Explore the University’s History Collections →
🔗 Learn more about University of Reading’s Centenary →