The Sydney Jones Library is the main library of the University of Liverpool, one of England’s oldest and most distinguished public research universities. The university traces its origins to 1881, when it opened as University College Liverpool, admitting its first students the following year. In 1903, a royal charter granted by King Edward VII gave the institution independent degree-awarding powers, and it has grown into one of the country’s leading academic institutions, with an income of £722.9 million recorded for 2024/25.
A University with Firsts
The University of Liverpool holds a remarkable number of academic firsts in the United Kingdom. It was the first UK university to establish departments in oceanography, civic design, architecture and biochemistry. In 1894, professor Oliver Lodge made the world’s first public radio transmission from the university, and two years later the first surgical X-ray in the UK was taken there. The Liverpool University Press, founded in 1899, is the third-oldest university press in England. The university is also a founding member of the Russell Group and the N8 Group, the research-focused association of universities across northern England.
Campus, Collections and Heritage
The Sydney Jones Library sits within a university campus whose Victoria Building directly inspired the term “redbrick university” – a phrase now applied broadly across British higher education, though Liverpool claims it as the original. The university manages several heritage assets listed on the National Heritage List, including the Victoria Gallery and Museum, the Ness Botanic Gardens and the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, whose origins date to 1749. Ten Nobel Prize laureates have been affiliated with the university as alumni or staff, and graduates use the post-nominal letters Lpool to identify their institution.