Education and route in:

History degree, followed by mixed work experience, which included some temp work on a retro-conversion project for archive catalogues.  Followed that up with some more experience in a local authority archive, then the Archive Administration MSc Econ at Aberystwyth.  

Ruth’s viewpoints 

 I am currently the archivist in charge of a local authority Heritage Service, which covers archives and local history.  This involves dealing with the public in person, over the phone and by email, to help them with their research, trying to make the material we have more accessible by sorting and cataloguing it and then by talking to groups about it.  We also talk to groups about family history and how to do research, including working with the borough’s Community Librarians and Children’s Librarians.  

 As well as having all the records of the Council I work for, the archives also holds all sorts of other things relating to the borough – letters and diaries of local people, records of local businesses and political parties and records of the historic organisations that ran the borough before the Council.  We have to make sure all these records are properly looked after, so we spend time checking the condition of them, and making sure they’re packaged to preserve them.    

The most interesting things tend to be the little bits of information you pick up when looking at the archives. Something, that on the surface seems quite dull, (like council minutes) can suddenly turn out to demonstrate how different life was in the past.  

I got into archives almost by accident. When graduating I had no idea what I wanted to do, so ended up doing a series of temp jobs.  One of these was linked to converting paper archive catalogues into electronic catalogues. That got me interested in an archiving career.   

I then went and did some more work experience in my local record office, and realised that I really enjoyed it, so applied and got in to study the MSc Econ at Aberystwyth.  My first job was in a local authority record office, where I was able to do a wide range of tasks, like dealing with the public, cataloguing collections, school visits and outreach.  After that I worked in a University archive, which I enjoyed. But I like talking to people about what archives are and why they matter, which academics already tend to know. That’s why I applied for my current job.

What’s next? 

 Not sure right now!  I’ve only been in my current post a few months, and there’s lots of work I want to develop here before thinking of what to do next.  At some point I intend to become a registered archivist, which will probably involve some more training on certain aspects of my job, such as copyright.

Best bit about my job:

The chance to work with real bits of history, and often to get a view of well known historical events from an ordinary person’s perspective.  

Any downsides?

You need patience!  And I don’t always have it. 

Ruth’s tip:

Being interested and enthusiastic is definitely a plus. Most archivists like what they do and want to encourage people to join the profession. So, if you’re keen enough to ask us about it, we might be able to help!