Under the part-time Internal Internship Scheme this year, we were fortunate to be able to offer two internship placements and welcomed students Yasmin and Tom, studying Law and History to the Archives. Projects they helped with included sorting and cataloguing the Channel Tunnel Collection which will support us in launching the catalogue and creating an exhibition to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Tunnel opening in November this year. The students also helped us to arrange the Reg Carpenter Maritime Book Collection and Shakespeare Collection of books, as well as digitise some of the Burnett Working Class Autobiographies. One of our volunteers, Yasmin, even managed to find time to help enhance some of the existing catalogue entries for the Burnett Archives
Our intern Yasmin had the following to say on her experience with us;
"Working as ‘special archives assistant’ at Brunel Library was an invaluable learning experience. An opportunity to sift through some of the archive collections; I particularly found reading the Burnett autobiographies to be the most interesting task. Creating summaries for each memoir meant that I had a degree of responsibility in translating that information into a more standardized format which I found very rewarding.
At the start of the internship my attention was focused on the organization of Channel Tunnel articles and press cuttings, reading through stakeholders' objections to its creation provided me with a better understanding of its long-term evolution. This internship has undoubtedly aided me in further developing my organisation and written communication skills. I would highly recommend it to any student studying at the university, especially because the hours are flexible. The staff are friendly and lovely to work with."
This is the third successful year we have participated in this Scheme. Our previous students, Jessica and Hannah, also made a significant contribution to the sorting and cataloguing of some of our special collections including Shakespearean Collections and Poetry of the Now. We would like to wish our interns the best in their courses and the future.
