Alison Mason Archivist, a day in the life...
My first job of the day is to check the archive store to make sure there
are no problems and that the environmental controls are correct. he
temperature and humidity are constantly monitored to provide the best
conditions we can for the collections. he King's historical collections are
quite a mixture - paper, photographs, textiles, electronic media and it is
something of a balancing act to cater for all their needs.
I then move on to looking at the post and e-mail. I work for just 2 days of
the week so there is usually quite a pile of correspondence and parcels in my
in-tray. It is very rare for there not to be something new for the collection
waiting for me. his might be memorabilia from an OA or something with
a King's connection found by a member of the public. he porters are excellent at finding interesting items in dark corners
of the school and I collect more recent material from teaching and support departments.
Most of the morning is taken up with answering enquiries. hese are often
internal requests for information about a person or building but I am regularly
contacted by family historians with an OA ancestor as well as a great range of
researchers interested in everything from military history, to cricket and the
history of Taunton. Since the collections were moved to the Archive Centre
it has been possible for OAs and researchers to visit and look at material for
themselves which provides a far better service.
In order to
know what
material we
have I need
to sort and
catalogue the
collection. With
new material
appearing
most days this
is a large and
ongoing job.
I am very excited at the prospect of gaining some new documentation software for
the collection in the near future which will help to record what information we have,
where it comes from and how to find it. his will certainly keep me busy for the next
12 months!
Although I have been an archivist for twenty years, I still love
the variety of the job from working with historical items to
meeting people with tales to tell and helping those with
questions. Best of all I enjoy being the Archivist at King's
because every day is like being on a treasure hunt.
Feature articles
From the Archives
he school chronicle records a variety
of information about the running of the
school, including the arrival and departures of
members of staff.
his board is one of the oldest school artefacts
in the archive, and is carved with the names of
pupils who attended the school 1880 - 1896
Photographs of school productions date back to the early 1900s
Collections
of school
magazines
and cricket
scorebooks
help to illustrate
school life as it
used to be