This is Jennifer’s last week with us here at the Archives and Collections. In today’s post, Jennifer sums up her traineeship and provides some information about her Fashion Show project!
I can’t believe as I’m writing this that my Skills for the Future year is over! It’s been an amazing year and I’m so lucky to have had this opportunity.
The catalogue for the fashion show project I have been working on is now live at GSAA/AV/1, with the catalogue incorporating the five films we hold. I have also generated a resource guide which will help researchers with the wide range of material we hold pertaining to the fashion shows. We are up to 119 biographies, which have been really interesting to research and write up. The annual reports here at GSA have been an invaluable source of information, as has the catalogue itself for finding related material, and I have a much wider understanding of the collections from doing this research.
Last week was the farewell event for our cohort, where we all presented on our projects and our future plans. Our presentations and projects were so varied and it’s amazing to see how much work we have all completed in just one year.
Our Archives and Collections Assistant Cat, from last year’s programme, also presented on her traineeship and her work since then, and it was lovely to hear a success story from the traineeship scheme!
We had a feedback session with trainees past and present, hosts from our organisations and trustees from the Scottish Council on Archives, since this is the last cohort on the Scottish scheme. There was lots of discussion and positive feedback so a worthwhile session.
The trainees were all given a framed copy of a picture from their host organisations’ collections – I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the 1978 fashion show poster, which was lovely as I researched Colin Wilson who designed it.
Once I finish up here at GSA, I have a fortnights’ break then I’m heading back to university. I’ll be studying for an MSc in Information Management and Preservation at the University of Glasgow (it’s over twenty years since I started there previously!) and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m planning to do a cataloguing placement at the National Records of Scotland looking at their shipbuilding photographs and tie in with the same subject for my dissertation. You can take the girl out of shipbuilding but you can’t take the shipbuilding out of the girl!
The skills and experience I have gained over the last twelve months, between Glasgow City Archives and The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections, have given me a great grounding to go into the course. The combination of immersion in the everyday archives work and the dedicated projects have taught me so much about archives – how they run, what they hold, how people use the holdings and the different aspects to the roles of archive staff.
I owe a huge debt of thanks to the teams at both my host organisations – I have felt part of both teams right from the outset and they have taught me so much. So too the archives teams in all the different organisations I have visited (22 visits in one year!) who answered all my questions.
It’s been a pleasure to do the traineeship alongside the other trainees who are now all friends, and I wish everyone well in their new paths. Finally, thanks must go to the Scottish Council on Archives and the Heritage Lottery Fund who gave me this opportunity.
It’s been an amazing experience and will stand me in good stead for my future career!
