In February, we introduced our three apprentices on the Archivist and Records Manager course, Level 7 – Lillian from the Records Management team, and Kate and Anna from the History Centre team. As of October 2024, they have completed their first year of learning! Anna has pulled together a retrospective of what they’ve been up to…
Visits
It has been a fantastic first year! We have loved learning alongside our fellow apprentices across the south and being able to attend unique opportunities. We have fortnightly classes with our tutor, Clare, and the other apprentices in our cohort. These are mostly online, but every eight weeks we meet in-person at one of the participating organisations. Over this first year, we have been able to visit each of my fellow apprentice’s workplaces: Records Management at Dorset Council; Portsmouth History Centre; and The Box in Plymouth, as well as hosting ourselves at DHC. It has been fantastic to see how other archives function – the unique storage situations, exciting collections, and even the shared problems!
At Portsmouth we were able to have an exclusive tour of the Mayor’s Chamber and see some of the incredible gifts to the city on display:
And at The Box we saw the fantastic ways of displaying collections using technology – the interactive map table was a particular favourite (we have not stopped telling our co-workers about it!):
During our classes we have been learning about different facets of work for archivists and records managers and produce assignments that apply this knowledge to our workplace. From specific standards of practice which describe archival arrangement, to the ethics and custodial responsibilities, it has been a fascinating year where I have felt my learning and understanding of the sector grow hugely.
Unique tasks at DHC
Outside of classes and assignments, we have been able to take part in additional tasks to support our learning. In December, we participated in disaster salvage training conducted by Jessica, conservator at DHC. The disaster in this training session was a flood, and we had to do what we could to reduce the damage to various prop books, photographs, and paper documents!
We also took part in the first Collections Fortnight at DHC, helping with an audit of the strongroom and accessioning new collections. You can read more about Collections Fortnight here; and read about the audit here. It was really successful, and we are able to have a regular closure period each year to continue this vital work! It’s going to be in Nov/Dec going forward, so we will be closed from 22nd November – 6th December 2024.
Kate and I supported DHC’s Heritage Open Day in September, showing off some of our favourite original documents and taking visitors on tour of the strongrooms and conservation lab.
Looking ahead
We have a new apprentice in the cohort – Joe from the Tank Museum has joined us! We will be visiting the Tank Museum next year for a behind-the-scenes tour and a look at their collections. Over the next year, we will be continuing with our assignments and visiting other organisations such as Wiltshire and Swindon Archives – we’re looking forward to another year of learning!