Now the end of the academic year is approaching, our student placements for 2016/7 have been completing their projects with us in Heritage Quay. We’ve had four placement students this year who have come to us as part of their courses, three from History (Colette, Todd and Jessica), one from English (Daniel). They’ve been working on a diverse range of collections from politics to music to Rugby League. They’ve also helped us on a special research project to investigate ways we might continue to host our exhibitions in the digital world once we’ve changed over the physical cases in Heritage Quay to the next exhibition! But more on that in the next few months!
To round off their time we’ve us, we’ve asked them each to sum up their experiences working with Heritage Quay – What they’ve done, what they’ve enjoyed and what has surprised or interested them. Here are their responses:
Jessica
I consider my time on placement at Heritage Quay as invaluable. Over the months that I was there, I contributed to the organisation of the Labour Party collection which needed sorting and cataloguing. The collection was wide ranging in the types of document and information it held, and I found this very interesting and helped keep me engaged in the topic. Not only was this work intriguing for me on a personal level, but it also provided me with skills that I could transfer into my studies as a history student. The staff at Heritage Quay are what made my experience there so positive and enjoyable. They were always eager to help and provide extra information about areas of the collection, and it is through their enthusiasm that pushed me to consider a role within an archive environment as a pathway after my graduation.
Colette
As part of my work placement in Heritage Quay I wrote descriptions for all of the scrapbooks in the Rugby League Tom Longworth collection. The descriptions that I wrote were then added to the online catalogue for the public to view. The work was quite repetitive but there were moments when I found some quite entertaining articles in the scrapbooks. For example, there was one that stated that a woman ran on to the pitch and started beating some players with her umbrella because they were fighting ‘her players’. The article included a photograph of her being dragged away by the police and a comment that she had previously run on to the pitch wielding a handbag! I also worked with some school groups that came in for outreach events which is something I didn’t expect in an archive. These events were fun to take part in and the children seemed to really enjoy them.
Todd
When most people think of an archive they would imagine a dark dingy space filled with old books and documents that sit there collecting dust being guarded by an old professor who keeps it locked away from the rest of the world. While this may be the case on a very small scale (personal archives) it cannot be said to be true of the large majority of British archives, certainly not of Heritage Quay! During my time as an archive volunteer at Heritage Quay I was able to gain an understanding of how the archive runs and I can confirm it is a place of wonderment – constantly progressing – using the latest technology to help conserve our history and finding new ways to engage the public. During my work placement, I personally worked on the British Music Collection (BMC) which was a vast collection focusing on British contemporary music. The collection includes music scores, (vinyl) records, audio recordings, music programmes, VHS tapes, and much more! During my allotted 75 hours I helped to put together a reliable database for the BMC VHS tapes, catalogued various other items such as composer files, added new items to the collection, repackaged items so that they were well conserved and helped out on a public event. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and it has helped me to consider a career in archiving as it provides a vast path of choices- there is always something to do!
As part of their research project, we asked them to provide some extra content for our campus trail, which is due to launch shortly with community group Discover Huddersfield. You can view their HistoryPin tour below, and Daniel uses his blog to discuss how useful a tool HistoryPin is for showcasing archives and the built environment:
Daniel
I have taken care of three places for the online exhibition: Joseph Priestley’s building, St Paul’s Hall and the University Entrance. During the years these have changed significantly, be it in their use or in their looks. It is important to save these changes for the knowledge-hungry people and Historypin was our tool to go during that endeavour. It has a multitude of fancy and interesting options and is really easy to use. Have you ever wondered how did the university build itself over time? With Historypin you can see which buildings are the oldest.
If you’re a student at the University of Huddersfield, keep your eyes open for more adverts for student placements next academic year on the e-placements website!