So long, and thanks for all the fish

Two years ago this week, I started my two-year part-time MA in Archives and Records Management at University College London. After years of hammering away at an undergraduate degree through the Open University and finally at a bricks-and-mortar university, I was about to start a postgraduate degree which would qualify me as an archivist. I …

Developing your archive skills: collection surveys

The Developing Your Archive Skills series is aimed at anyone interested in a career in archives (and anyone looking to enhance their skills), and I will be highlighting a range of different courses, training days, and opportunities for skills development. Preservation Assessment Survey Workshop The British Library in collaboration with West Dean College have come …

Developing your archive skills: doing digitisation

The Developing Your Archive Skills series is aimed at anyone interested in a career in archives (and anyone looking to enhance their skills), and I will be highlighting a range of different courses, training days, and opportunities for skills development. Doing Digitisation The British Library is back with another great short course on Doing Digitisation in …

Suffragettes vs. the State: an exhibition at The National Archives

On International Archives Day (9th June) I went to The National Archives and visited Suffragettes vs. the State, an exhibition which explores the militant side of the twentieth-century women's suffrage movement. The exhibition is laid out in an open room,centered around a set of desks strewn with paperwork in an office style layout, which symbolises the State. …

Preparing for an Archive Digitisation Project (via TownsWeb Archiving)

In my role as an Assistant Archivist, I have been spending a lot of time over the last six months working on a digitisation project. This is not something that I have had any prior experience in and it has been an interesting and challenging learning curve. TownsWeb Archiving, a digitisation specialist within the Heritage …

GDPR (in memes)

Today (25th May 2018) is THAT day. The day that the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. Rather than a sensible, factual and potentially helpful blog post, I'm celebrating this momentous, headache-generating occasion by sharing some of my favourite GDPR memes.       If you'd actually like some sensible information about GDPR, then …

Developing Your Archive Skills: Reading Old Documents

To go with the new look and new name of the blog, I'm also coming you with a new series of blog posts - Developing Your Archive Skills. This series is aimed at anyone interested in a career in archives (and anyone looking to enhance their skills), and I will be highlighting a range of …

How to Network: a #HarrodsCareersWeek event

Last month I experienced one of Harrods' twice-yearly Careers Week events, featuring a wide range of workshops, lectures and career stories. I took the opportunity to get out of the office and attend six different sessions, and one such session was "How to Network", run by one of Harrods ' learning advisors, Rebecca Williams. There are lots …

Developing Your Archive Skills: Preserving Historic Photographs

The Developing Your Archive Skills series is aimed at anyone interested in a career in archives (and anyone looking to enhance their skills), and I will be highlighting a range of different courses, training days, and opportunities for skills development. Preserving Historic Photographs Photographic collections are a fantastic resource for getting a visual grasp of …

Digitisation from an archival point of view (via R3:store Studios)

In my day job, I'm currently working on a project to digitise a set of magnetic tapes. This is not something that can be done in-house, and so the company who have been chosen to help digitise the collection and bring it back to life is R3:store Studios, who are based in East London. Having …