It’s been three months since I started at the ADS as a Digital Archives Assistant, and I’ve already had the pleasure of undertaking quite a varied array of tasks. From matching controlled vocabularies to releasing my first ADS Easy archives, here’s a whistle-stop tour of how I found myself at the ADS and what I have been up to so far.
During the second Covid lockdowns, I had just finished my MA in Archaeology at Durham University, which focused on the Hellenistic settlement patterns in Southwest Anatolia. Thinking I would go down the academic route, I was spending my time (doom) scrolling through PhD applications when I came across the British Institute at Ankara’s (BIAA) pre-doctoral research scholarship. This was my first step down the wonderful rabbit hole of digital preservation, repositories, and many strange abbreviations (I still get confused between AIPs and APIs when I have to say them out loud).
During my time as a Research Scholar, I spent the majority of my time supporting the newly established BIAA Digital Repository in various digitisation, cataloguing, archiving, and data management tasks. In 2023, after 2 years at the BIAA, I decided to pursue a part-time MSc in Digital Archaeology to supplement all the practical experience with theoretical background. After a student placement as part of the MSc programme at York University and some casual work at the ADS, I found myself officially a part of the team in September 2024.
With a solid background in archiving and managing digital archaeological data, I was eager to learn how exactly things worked at this well-oiled machine with a unique position in UK archaeology. I started my training learning about the background of the ADS, and how the different parts of the machine fit together. I must admit I was a bit nervous at first but I’m mostly fascinated by the intricacies of the CMS (Collection Management System) and OMS (Object Management System), and the amount of biscuits consumed in the office.
Since September, I’ve probably eaten more biscuits than I have during my entire life, helped complete 4 boxes of puzzles, and received technical training from various colleagues in the team. My recent tasks have included matching controlled vocabularies for the Medieval Stained Glass in Britain (CVMA) database using ICONCLASS, playing Sherlock Holmes with the England’s Rock Art data, continuing with PACE project tasks I had started working on during my internship, helping the Communications team during some training sessions, and most recently archiving ADS Easy collections.
Looking back on these three months, I’m grateful to have such a helpful and supportive team who have given me lots of opportunities to ask questions. Everyone at the office has been very enthusiastic to have a chat about all things archiving, not to mention the interest they’ve shown in my ongoing MSc dissertation. I’m excited for the brand new skills I’ll be developing as part of the ADS team, as I slowly climb the mountain of digital preservation (I have a sneaking suspicion there will be more cookies up top).
