Category Archives: Libraries and Heritage

Archive Assistant – Unfinished Histories

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Assisting in the cataloguing of the Inter-Action Archive, sorting through new documents for relevant material, helping set up a Facebook page for the project, and transcribing interviews with key members of Inter-Action.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Being able to make practical use of my research skills in a professional environment – rather than using it to write essays I actually got to use my research and analytical skills to analyse key documents and organise documents accordingly.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The main benefit was probably helping them get through archival material and organise them accordingly which in turn allowed them to search through other garages to collect more documents. Also, I helped in establishing a Facebook page which will make it easier to post updates on the project as well as getting in contact with people who were part of the Inter-Action community group.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Communication, focus on goals and outcomes, IT

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, initiative, motivation

Museum Assistant – Museum of Witchcraft and Magic

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My main responsibilities included cataloguing museum exhibition objects, researching museum objects, and updating the database. The cataloguing and research generally centered on the current Ritual Magic exhibition called ‘Dew of Heaven’. The bulk of the cataloguing material included a donation of various 20th century occult materials, which required further research using the museum library and the internet, and making links to other objects in the museum’s collections. Another main task involved scanning in object labels made by the museum’s founder and matching them with their corresponding objects where possible. Some of my minor tasks also included setting the museum up in the morning – sweeping and lighting incense, as well as operating the till.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

My biggest achievement over the course of my internship included using my research skills to uncover information about the members of the late 19th and early 20th century occultist Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Various sources revealed fascinating and enlightening information about the order’s then-secret members. This task was a part of the cataloguing project that was one of my responsibilities, which I successfully completed by the end of my internship, which I then outlined in a blog post on the museum’s website.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to finish a whole box file of labels which needed scanning and cataloguing on the online database, and I helped with research regarding the cataloguing project which lightened the workload of my colleagues and ensured that anyone seeking information about the objects would find a comprehensive description of them with links to related objects at the museum, as well as the sources that could provide further data.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, customer service, focus on goals and outcomes

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Initiative, independence, work ethic, professionalism

Research Assistant – South West Heritage Trust

researchsouthwest

What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My main responsibilities as a intern with the South West Heritage Trust were cataloguing material dating from the First World War, for a HLF-funded scheme called the ‘Devon Remembers Heritage Project’. My role involved organising and attending meetings with local heritage centres across the county, as well as compiling the results of volunteer research groups into accessible formats such as Excel or Word.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

My biggest achievement during the internship was securing an additional three months of employment with the company, which commenced immediately after the initial contract was due to finish. I was really pleased to see that my work and contribution to the company had been so highly valued and a contract extension will allow me to become more heavily involved in various aspects of the Devon Remembers project.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I saved my line manager a great deal of time searching through archive collections and driving around the county to visit other local archives. I was able to compile large amounts of information into a usable form for Katherine and the company’s archivists.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

Whilst not directly related to the content of my work, the most major problem in my internship was the hour-long commute by car. I overcame this by downloading audio books to listen to whilst driving and it made the travelling much more bearable.

“Ciaran is an excellent member of the team and we have offered him further employment as a result of his internship. His skills, attitude and aptitude for learning all make him an asset to the organisation” – Devon Remembers Heritage Project Officer

Archives Assistant – Heritage Collections, University of Exeter

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What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My role as a temporary archives assistant primarily involved cataloguing the correspondence of South West writer Henry Williamson. I was also given the opportunity to supervise the Special Collections Reading Room desk, and participate in key processes in Heritage Collections such as retrievals and re-shelving, selecting and preparing materials for display and working with Arts and Culture to help promote academic events. I was also given the opportunity to shadow other fundamental parts of working in a university archive, such as accessions, digitisation and answering queries, and was given access to wider reading about the sector and archival practices.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

My biggest achievement over the course of my internship has been the ability I have gained to try new things, and believe in my own skillset. The department trusted me with some of their most precious collections – including letters by Thomas Hardy and Agatha Christine – and being able to work on such important materials really helped me gain confidence in my own abilities, and the skills I can bring to future employers.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

My help in cataloguing Henry Williamson’s correspondence meant that the Special Collections team could present a more detailed record of their collections to the public and researchers, making the materials in the archive more accessible. My proudest moment as part of my internship was when I was informed that the work I had undertaken had resulted in a request for that material – by contributing to the Special Collections catalogue, a process that also taught me about cataloguing software CALM, I had also made a tangible and positive impact on the service they are able to provide.

“Lucy was an extremely high calibre intern who managed much of the intern process herself. There were some hitches in the process and her proactive approach really helped with this” – Head of Heritage Collections

Support Field Assistant – University of Exeter

Archaeology Internship, University of Exeter Internship, UoE Internship, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

During my internship I worked in an archaeological field school in Roman Devon. This was a collaborative venture between the departments of Archaeology, Classics and Ancient History who jointly funded the venture to enable and enhance the experience of students involved in the planned excavation and post-excavation of a newly identified Roman site. The internship helped to support the creation of a digital archive to be used in undergraduate teaching and public outreach.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

The internship helps me to hone my archaeological field skills due to the fact that I had to teach these techniques to first and second year students. My biggest achievement was using the internship to network which led to my being employed by a professional archaeologist I met on site.

” William was a very hardworking individual to have on site and proved useful” – Line Manager

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