We were delighted to be joined last week by Year 10 student Elodie for a week of work experience in Special Collections. Below Elodie shares some of her impressions and reflections on the experience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Elodie for her excellent work and wish her every success for the future.
This week, I was given the opportunity to do my work experience at Special Collections. Over the five days, I took part in several tasks you would do as an archivist. As well as this, I got a chance to speak to many members of the Special Collections team, along with staff at the wider university who work closely with the archives, such as the University Library, Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, and the Digital Humanities Lab.
On Monday, we received training in handling archives and rare books, which gave me a chance to see some of the favourite items of the collection, such as letters written by Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier, and a beautiful hand-painted atlas of the counties of England Wales from the 16th century. This was a real highlight, and it was incredible to see and handle something so old.
One of the main things I spent my time doing was repackaging files and photographs from the Clive Lee archive, about the Exeter Hip, a type of hip replacement. While this may sound like an easy task, a surprising amount of thought had to go in to ensuring that everything was packaged correctly so that it can be preserved for centuries to come.
Another activity that we were given was stocktaking the Hypatia Collection, which involved checking that a selection of books and pamphlets from the collection were in the correct place. It took a while to get a hang of the system, but I found it easier and easier as the week progressed, and it was really interesting to see all of the books on the way women lived.
On Wednesday, we received a tour of the Forum Library and the Digital Humanities Lab, and got to see how these other University departments work with Special Collections. I even got the opportunity to use a 3D printer, where I printed a little blue shark, have a go at digitising some archival material using cameras, and use podcast equipment, which were all new and exciting experiences.
Other activities that we did over the week included a tour of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, which I found fascinating, particularly seeing the objects relating to early animation and how people were entertained visually before cinema. On Thursday, I posted an Instagram post of a photograph from Special Collections to celebrate Wimbledon for Throwback Thursday. We also set up materials for and sat in on a visit from the Courtauld Summer School, who were looking at medieval manuscripts. It was amazing to see how fascinated these visitors were and listen to all of the questions that they had. Finally, on Friday, we helped to retrieve items for a visit next week, which was a fun bit of detective work. We had to write slips for each book/letter, work out which bay in the strong room they were in, and then retrieve the items and place a slip in their original location so that they can be easily returned.
I really enjoyed speaking to members of the team about their roles, which are really varied. Different people have to do a huge variety of tasks, including receiving new donations, cataloguing, digitising, supervising the Reading Room, retrieving materials, running outreach and events, and even monitoring the temperature and insects in the strong rooms! Everyone was really friendly and welcoming, and as soon as I arrived any initial nervousness about a week of work experience disappeared. Each task was thoroughly explained and Annie, Tash and the rest of the team were happy to answer any questions that we had.
Overall, I had an amazing time at Special Collections, and it gave me an incredible insight into an area of work that I initially had very little knowledge about, which I will definitely be considering when thinking about careers in the future.