After a fantastic nine months, my traineeship has far too quickly come to an end. It's been the best possible experience I could have hoped for, for which I must give all my thanks to my manager, Sarah. The last year has furnished me with experience of most aspects of the archive profession and has allowed me to go on some great trips visits and training opportunities. I couldn't mention these without mentioning the Erasmus placement I undertook in July to a university archive service in Berlin. Not only did I get to visit a city that I've always wanted to go to, but I also gained experience of an archive in another European country, which is probably quite unusual for someone in my situation.
A highlight of the year has been working on the Tom Cross Archive catalogue. Tom Cross was a painter and Principal at the Falmouth School of Art (predecessor of University College Falmouth) in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection includes some beautiful sketchbooks, copious amounts of research on artists and art history, and fascinating material relating to his published work. I felt I'd really got to know him through the Archive, and certainly learnt a thing or two about art! I was completely overwhelmed when I was presented with one of his paintings as a leaving gift, kindly donated by his wife who I came to know quite well through my work.
A real achievement has been the initiation of a Social Media policy for the Service. This was something I'd been keen on from the start, and the first step was setting up this blog. The major breakthrough was our Twitter Project, which launched in June. We've been watching our followers steadily increase ever since. There is no doubt that there is a lot of work involved in keeping up a successful Twitter profile, but it's been a great way of promoting our collections and networking with other archives and archivists. I will certainly be keeping an eye out on future #CornishWordoftheDay tweets; these have been my favourite to write, with words like 'silly-wig' and 'popey duck'! (Follow @FXArchives to find out what these mean!)
Despite the perfect Cornish summer I was looking forward to never quite appearing, I've really enjoyed living here. Making the move from south-east London was a bit of a culture shock, but actually a very pleasant one. On the rare sunny days, it certainly all felt worth it when I could spend my lunch break wandering around the beautiful grounds at Tremough. I've also met some fantastic people here, and would like to thank the whole of the Library and Information Services team for making me feel so welcome.
I'm very sad that this experience has come to an end, but can't wait to begin my studies at UCL in a month's time and begin the next stage of my career. I would like to say a final thank you to the Archives team, especially to Sarah, and I wish the next Intern the best of luck.
A highlight of the year has been working on the Tom Cross Archive catalogue. Tom Cross was a painter and Principal at the Falmouth School of Art (predecessor of University College Falmouth) in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection includes some beautiful sketchbooks, copious amounts of research on artists and art history, and fascinating material relating to his published work. I felt I'd really got to know him through the Archive, and certainly learnt a thing or two about art! I was completely overwhelmed when I was presented with one of his paintings as a leaving gift, kindly donated by his wife who I came to know quite well through my work.
A real achievement has been the initiation of a Social Media policy for the Service. This was something I'd been keen on from the start, and the first step was setting up this blog. The major breakthrough was our Twitter Project, which launched in June. We've been watching our followers steadily increase ever since. There is no doubt that there is a lot of work involved in keeping up a successful Twitter profile, but it's been a great way of promoting our collections and networking with other archives and archivists. I will certainly be keeping an eye out on future #CornishWordoftheDay tweets; these have been my favourite to write, with words like 'silly-wig' and 'popey duck'! (Follow @FXArchives to find out what these mean!)
Despite the perfect Cornish summer I was looking forward to never quite appearing, I've really enjoyed living here. Making the move from south-east London was a bit of a culture shock, but actually a very pleasant one. On the rare sunny days, it certainly all felt worth it when I could spend my lunch break wandering around the beautiful grounds at Tremough. I've also met some fantastic people here, and would like to thank the whole of the Library and Information Services team for making me feel so welcome.
I'm very sad that this experience has come to an end, but can't wait to begin my studies at UCL in a month's time and begin the next stage of my career. I would like to say a final thank you to the Archives team, especially to Sarah, and I wish the next Intern the best of luck.
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