Files, arranged chronologically by year, covering the foundation, growth, development and activities of the Medical Recording Service Foundation and Graves Medical Audiovisual Library.
They contain some or all of the following: correspondence; minutes of the Royal/College of General Practitioners Post-Graduate Education Committee and Finance and General Purposes Committee, the Medical Recording Service Foundation Board (from 1969), the Graves Medical Audiovisual Library council (from 1977); memoranda, progress and activity reports; magazine, journal and newspaper articles on the service and on the use of sound as a teaching an learning tool (mostly written by John and/or Valerie Graves); library usage and listener statistics; questionnaires to members and market research surveys; scripts for or transcripts of some early recordings; audiovisual conference programmes; library lending forms and return cards; lists of titles of recordings made and catalogues (from 1960 onwards) and videotape catalogues from the mid-1980s; newsletters (from 1960 onwards); circulars to members; annual reports; guides to making tape recordings of talks; reports of visits to audiovisual teaching places; reports to grant providers Smith Kline and French; income and expenditure figures; recording service advertising leaflets and literature of related organisations; director's and treasurer's reports; histories of the organisation; opinions of legal council regarding changes to structure and status of the organisation; anniversary brochures.
Most files also contain photographs covering all aspects of the service, including audio and photographic equipment, recordings taking place, post-recording editing, transcripting and label printing, exhibitions, meetings, lectures and conferences, people listening to their own recordings, administration and staff of the library (including help from local schoolgirls in early days), the Graves family working on the newsletter, interior and exterior of the library rooms and new annex and new buildings. Most of the photographs are black and white and are labelled with subjects and dates. The Graves seem to have been accomplished amateur photographers.
There is a handwritten list (probably by Valerie Graves) of documents at the front of each file, some with additional notes.