At the start of the year, one of our team left on maternity leave (and has recently had a happy and healthy daughter for which we all send our hearty congratulations!) For the duration of her maternity leave, we have a new Digital Archivist, who has spent the first three months of her post picking up all the facets to the role. Let’s learn more about her…
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I’m Emma, and I’m the Digital Preservation Archivist. I joined the team in February, having previously worked for the Records Management team at Dorset Council, as well as The Open University Archive in Milton Keynes and the Britten-Pears Archive in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
I work with Dorset History Centre’s film, sound, photographic, and digital collections. My job is to ensure our collections are catalogued and stored appropriately. I also take in new accessions donated to us, and these can take many forms – from a VHS tape, USB stick or a file sent on WeTransfer!
I also make sure at-risk or obsolete formats are digitised so that copies can remain accessible far into the future. Here at Dorset History Centre, we use an online repository called Preservica to store digital records. Since starting in February, I have added over 1,500 digital files to Preservica – including photographs, PDF records such as parish council minutes, and oral history audio files.
One of my personal highlights over the last couple of months has been accessioning and digitising photographs of Sydling St Nicholas – mostly photographs of the village and their agricultural life in the 1940s.
We plan to write another blog about this collection in the future, so keep your eyes peeled!
The first few months have certainly been very interesting, with lots to learn about DHC! I will share more highlights from the digital archive in the future!