I haven’t given an update for a while – as the new trainees have been recruited I’ve been busy searching for a new job for when my contract ends in June.
We have been very busy the last few weeks with training courses and visits.
Lauren & I went for a visit to Tameside archives to see the Archive management software CALM in action. In 2010 Tameside was given four stars in the National Archives Self Assessment making it the best Archive in the North West. It includes two large temperature controlled archive spaces, and a search room with family history resources similar to the one at Stockport.
I also spent a day in the Lending Library downstairs – the Heritage Library is reference only, so there are certain tasks which we don’t do much of upstairs – such as book renewals, transfer of books to other libraries, and dealing with requests. I spent a day learning all these, which was really interesting and I hope to spend some more time down there in the future. It also made me realise I need to venture down to borrow books more frequently!
We had two training days last week – the first was ‘Effective Minute Taking’ which was very useful and has made me feel confident about taking minutes during meetings, and the second day of the ‘Taking Stock’ course. This course is four days in total, and is a development course aimed at women – it’s been wonderful for confidence building, recognising your strengths, team working etc. and very enjoyable – I’ve met some lovely ladies!
I’ve also been busy replying to lots of enquiries which have been coming into the library – most notably a family who are visiting the library from Australia in May – their ancestors had a boot shop in what is now Staircase House, so I have been compiling some information for when they visit, and have found that one of their ancestors wrote books and plays, some of which we have copies of in the archives – very exciting!
So that is a very speedy round-up of what I’ve been up to over the last few weeks!
Natasha's Heritage 