For the past 7 weeks I have had the pleasure of doing an internship with the Archives and Special Collections at Brunel University of London. I worked with the Transport History collections, specifically the Garnett collection. The materials that I worked closely with were mostly concerned with the railways in Britain which I found surprisingly interesting. David Garnett was a railway historian who played a big role in the compilation of Railway maps, and I had the privilege of going through it all. Exploring the collections has allowed me to see all the effort that has gone into making transport easier, through the opening and closing of stations and railways for the creation of clearer maps.
One of the biggest responsibilities I had was cataloguing material. This involved reading through files within the collection and accurately putting them into an online database. The main files I was going through was correspondence between David Garnett and others including members of the Railway Clearing House, the Railway Print Society, the Railway & Canal Historical Society and many more. The discussions were often about Railway Maps, the acquisition of updated maps, the acquisitions of maps for museums/exhibitions and even the acquisition of old Railway maps that dated as far back as the 19th century. Organising files and material also included repackaging and reorganising materials in the archives. One of the first tasks that I fulfilled was repackaging railway posters from their large glass frames into plastic wallets for easier storage. This would then need to be catalogued. The other files which I catalogued also required repackaging, requiring us to fit the files into smaller boxes creating more space in the storeroom.
As Outreach Assistant I was given the role of updating the social media accounts of the Archives and Special Collections. It was the one area of my internship that I interacted with the least, which was quite surprising. I was surprised at how differently I would have to approach posting on a social media platform professionally as opposed to how I’m used to posting on my own personal accounts. I had to make sure to go through the accounts’ previous posts and curate a post which fits in with the existing posts on the page.
One of the posts that I made for the Instagram account was regarding a display I helped put together for a conference hosted by Brunel (can be found here: Instagram). It was essential that engaging pieces were picked out for the displays. This one focused on the History of Brunel showcasing an array of Brunel prospectuses and Brunel bulletin covers throughout the years displaying 59 years of Brunel.
Cataloguing materials and going through the materials in the collection really helped me to fulfil my next tasks which were writing blog posts. Going through the Special Collections helped me find material that I was interested in doing further research on. I was given freedom to choose the topics and went about witing blogs using both what I had found in the Archives and research of my own. Writing blogs was quite refreshing to me as there is quite a clear difference with academic writing. I found it to be much more exciting, engaging and relaxed.
The experience of this internship was great, I enjoyed it much more than I expected. The staff around me were always supportive, and while a lot of the work was independent, I never felt like I had to do anything completely alone. The end of my internship also marks the end of my time at Brunel, working with Archives and Special Collections has allowed me to explore new interests and skills that will help me navigate the decisions for the future. I am very grateful to have been able to participate in this opportunity.
Najah