Tag: Volunteering

This is the last day I work in Islington Museum and I spent a fantastic morning with Julie Melrose, the archivist of Islington Local History Centre who gave me a mesmerising introduction to the centre and briefly the history of London borough of Islington and Finsbury. Then I got some hands-on experience in categorising, putting the maps of Islington borough in order and attaching appropriate labels and captions with those archived documents. It impressed me a lot how Islington expanded and developed in the recent 200 years and how archives support academic research and also general users with particular interests.

My work placement in Islington Museum is almost finishing here and it will be great to make a conclusion for all achievements I have done and with them, the learning outcomes. I very much appreciate the work plan for me which was made by the curator Roz and suited my interests and competencies very well. Following that plan, I had a great opportunity to experience managing ADLIB database and working on accession and object check. Whereas my previous employers were advertising agencies which demands good insight and understanding of clients’ requirement, the work here in Islington Museum needs more attention to details and passion for social culture and local history. The gap in between makes this work placement much meaningful and fascinating because working with academia is pretty eye-opening and ignite more possibilities for my own career. As for the practical skills I acquired in this work placement, I grew my competency in sorting data with Excel and managing database from the experience in using ADLIB, which could be useful in analytic and statistic jobs. Besides, this is the first time I work in a completely English environment which improved my skills in language and communicating with local people. In one word, the work placement I had in Islington Museum is a brilliant experience which extended my horizon and got myself prepared for future career.

Islington Museum is a fantastic place to apply theoretical learning into real working environment and people here are very much kind and helpful. It could be better if more volunteers can be used to sort the database and digitised materials here. I had a very wonderful time in Islington Museum and wish them all the best in the future.

Islington Museum/ Local History Centre Entrance

The first thing I started in Islington Museum was to check the objects’ locations in the small store. In order to handle collections appropriately, Roz introduced me all the must-dos in different cases and circumstances. I finished roughly six shelves full of objects, registering their numbers, names and descriptions as much in details as I can. Roz double-checked the locations and I will input the accurate locations in Adlib later on.

To determine what items are missing in Adlib, I conducted a comparison between the accession register book and an Excel sheet of all existing data generated by Adlib. I have checked 582 records and found 41 items were missing in Adlib. By manually creating items and adding fundamental attributes such as object category, name, title and description, these missing items could have been added into our database. However there are still some attributes remain blank in the database which would be better if more information is specified. I think probably we could particularly focus on the original accession registers of those missing items and manage to add more useful details to them.

Writing blogs which I am doing right now is another interesting task here in Islington Museum. It would be great if we treat these blogs as a reminder of what we have already achieved and what possibly could be improved in the future. Plus, it is also a great opportunity for our external communication with the public and those who have interests in museum stuff.

It is the third day of my working in Islington Museum and it seems that I have really done some interesting works. Regarding the plan I will add photographs recently taken to the records in Adlib. I am also going to do the Adlib check for permanent gallery. I will spend half of the last day in Islington Museum with Julie Melrose who is archivist of Islington Local History Centre. I feel much satisfied and happy with what I have learned so far and I am very looking forward into future challenges.

The Permanent Gallery

Things I have learnt working in the Islington Heritage Museum:

1. One of the first things I learnt and enjoyed about working here was to get to know the Museum. Roz kindly gave me a tour of the museum where I found a lot of interesting information.
2. How to write a blog for this Project webpage, ‘Sifting the paperwork’, with content about activities I normally do.
3. Get to understand the database of the Museum, ADLIB, and work with it to verify and compare with the Accessions Register to see if every Museum object is in the database with the correct number and description. For missing objects, I corrected them or added them to an excel sheet.
4. Learn how the Local History Archives of Islington Council works, how it is organised and helped to  find and classify some pamphlets for the Sadler’s Wells Theatre
5. Learn to handle museum objects following training, by having to digitise some of them and upload to the database. Each museum object will have a photograph in the database to be recognized more easily.
6. What I liked most about working at the museum of Islington was the digitization of objects, to take pictures of each one and get to know a little bit more of the stories of the Islington community.
   (One of the pictures I digitise. Image: Booth’s Distilleries Ltd.)

• One of my first tasks in Islington Museum was digitising some of the objects that belonged to an Odeon cinema in Islington that was built a long time ago and now has been demolished. We took photos of 5 different objects. The first three objects were banners that appeared below the advertisement of the movie before its release, and the other two were the frames where movie posters were displayed outside the movie theatre. (Image: Frame displaying the movie and cast of the week)
• My next task was to check over the Accessions Register book and compare the information with an Excel from the collections management system, Adlib, with a list of all the objects, to verify if every Museum object is in its place with the correct number and description. I corrected mistakes and added missing elements to the excel sheet.
• I also spent a morning in the Local History Archives of Islington Council ; get to know all the archives rooms, understand their purpose and how they are a good tool to comprehend the history of Islington Borough. I helped organise some of the pamphlets that belonged to an old Islington Theatre called Sadler’s Wells, the world’s No.1 venue dedicated to international dance – presenting dance in all forms from contemporary to flamenco, ballet to hip hop. In 1683, Richard Sadler opened his “Musick House” (house of music), being the second public theater that opened in London. Basically my task was to read each one of the pamphlets and find the date they were issued and classify them from the oldest date to the most recent. (Image: Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 1910)

Introducing Stephanie!

My name is Stephanie and I am studying Digital Humanities at University College London (UCL). I am half Peruvian and half Italian with dual nationality, but have lived in Peru my entire life. Three years ago I moved to London to study Digital Marketing at King’s College and I ended up staying here. Then I started working for a StartUp, a medical platform that mainly tried to connect patients and doctors in a more efficient way. Next I worked in a NGO in charge of promoting civil education programmes of freedom, liberty, peace and justice and overall the consolidation of democracy. I really enjoyed my time working there but I wanted to learn more about digital humanities and how to analyse data so that is why I applied to study at UCL.

I love culture, history and languages -I speak Spanish, English and Italian, and would like to learn many more! I like teaching and meeting new people, and particularly to learn more about their culture. My hobby is to do horseback riding and go to the movies. My first motivation to work at Islington Museum is the fact that I wanted to learn more about the place I am living right now. I also will know the history behind each aspect of Islington Borough and how that is reflected in modern life here. By working here I am hoping to help in anyway I can to enhance the database system of the Museum and also improve some areas that are not been well developed.