So, what does this job entail? Well the best bits are working with the world-class collections, and most recently we have been showing them off to school groups in our Understanding Slavery sessions, planning new exhibitions, and deciding how best to catalogue them to make them as accessible as possible for users of our online catalogue.
We’d love to hear from you if you have used our pre-visit
online ordering service that allows you to maximise your research time, or if you have ideas about how we could improve our services for you. We’re thinking of introducing digital scanning in the future and already allow people to use their digital cameras for research purposes.
I love working with the people here at the Museum. We’ve just had three new members of staff join the team and now have dedicated Customer Services Assistants to greet you in the E-Library when you visit us. We’ve had researchers from Canada, Greece and the United States recently, as well as local family historians and maritime students. You never know what you’ll be asked, and it was exciting to find the answer to a shipwreck mystery for someone just this week.
Of course, I do my fair share of meetings, conferences and report writing. Working closely with our Conservation department I have been prioritising the preservation needs of the rare books, printed ephemera and manuscripts collections. In July I was representing the library at a conference in Cheltenham, in September I’ll be negotiating to extend our digital resources. This month has been quieter and given me time to catch up with the paperwork – how to develop the E-Library, launching a library blog, planning the autumn workload and an active events programme.
Next on the agenda we want to develop a raft of resources for family historians, don’t miss our Family History Day on Saturday 15 September or forget to visit us for
Open House on Sunday 16 September – there’s a Lutyens designed Grade I listed interior to be viewed in the Rotunda entrance.
I hope you enjoy the blog as much as we have putting it together. Keep in touch!
Jill (Head of Library and Manuscripts)