On Thursday I attended the first ever meeting of the Archive Trainees Group, along with Emma and Nicky, at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.
After a slightly awkward start, with lots of people sitting on leaf-shaped chairs trying not to make eye-contact with each other, things relaxed a bit and I got to do some Networking. I immediately found myself in the odd situation of recognising somebody from their blog – Holly Fairhall of the controversial ‘My Archiving Hell’. After my assurances that I was not one of the haters, she agreed to give me a shout-out on her Twitter feed.
The first formal part of the meeting consisted of two presentations, from Elizabeth Shepherd at UCL and Caroline Brown at Dundee, discussing the nature of their Archives and Records Managment courses. This wasn’t all new information for me as I have already done a bit of research about the courses available and applied for one. However, it was useful to pick up some interview tips, learn that I should forget about receiving funding and that I probably won’t get a job when I qualify.
After more chatting, coffee and unexpectedly high quality biscuits (thanks ARA!), we listened to three trainees give presentations about their jobs.
First up was Sarah Cox of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. It was reassuring to see that her role was not all that different to mine, and that we even work on similar material given Magdalen’s historical links with the Botanic Garden in Oxford. She has already started on a distance learning Master’s course, which was not something I had previously given much consideration, but might have to think about.
Second was Sharon Messenger of the Wellcome Library. Working as a student at the Wellcome Library was what got me interested in archives/special collections in the first place, so it was interesting to hear from somebody coming from a similar background. The most notable difference between the Wellcome Library and anywhere I have worked is their highly proactive acquisitions policy, so it was interesting to hear about her trips around Britain picking up people’s papers – I may need to learn how to drive after all.
Last up was our own Emma Hancox of the FutureARCH project – I had been lucky enough to get a tour of her workplace the day before, but it was nice to have it explained again in a more formal presentation. Emma’s work is quite different from that experienced by most trainees, and definitely seemed to generate the most interest around the room.
All in all it was a good experience, and it was valuable to compare notes with others at the same stage of their career- this can be rather difficult as archivists often work in small teams or by themselves. The group will continue meeting every few months for the rest of the year, and hopefully beyond.
