Hi everyone, it’s been roughly 2 months since we started our traineeship at the Norfolk Record Office so it’s about time we gave you an update! (Click here to read our introductory blog post)

Emily:
I’m currently completing the design of our first ever 6 month events booklet. We have a wide range of events coming up, including tours, walks, workshops, talks…and much more. It’s been a struggle to fit everything in! It will be ready by the beginning of January, so if you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive a copy, please get in touch by sending an email to norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk

I’m also looking through our records to find election posters to include in our next exhibition. It’ll cover Norfolk’s history of parliamentary representation and be launched in April. So far I’ve come across some funny political cartoons, and it’s fascinating to see the ways in which political campaigning has changed (and not changed) over the years.

The National Archives in Kew

In November we both visited the National Archives in Kew. It was great to meet the other trainees from around the country and to hear about the similarities and differences of each archive. A highlight of the week was the behind-the-scenes tour: the strongrooms in which the records are stored are so huge that staff often drive around on trikes!

Caroline:
I’m two months into my traineeship now and it’s going really well.  I have been working on digitising the audio memoirs of the late Labour MP for North Norfolk Burt Hazell, who was a really fascinating man.  If you want to listen to the memoirs, please get in touch with the NRO (email: norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk).

I’m also working on a project to digitize the archive collection of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library. The 2nd Air Division was a US Army Air Force division stationed in Norfolk during the Second World War.  Over half of the collection has now been photographed and we are in the process of building a website to host the images.  This project is due for completion by the end of 2015, so we’ll keep you posted on progress and the launch date!  In the meantime, you can find out more about the 2nd Air Division by visiting the Memorial Library

It was good to meet the other ten trainees at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew, where we all went for induction training a few weeks ago.  As well as learning practical digitisation skills on my traineeship, I will also be learning about digital preservation, so it was really useful to sit down with the Digital Preservation team at TNA, who gave us an overview of the whole process.  If you are also interested in this subject, have a look at TNA’s online resources.

If you have any questions just comment below.