I am very fortunate to have MA students Nanna, Sandrine and Danae from the Photographic History Research Centre helping me out in the Archive. They are working on listing and repackaging material from the National Art Slide Library. This large collection was transferred to DMU from the V&A in the 1990s. For years it functioned as a slide lending library – people could borrow slides to illustrate their talks and presentations. In this digital age of the Google image search and PowerPoint the slide carousel is obsolete.
There is no comprehensive listing of the slides and they need to be packaged in safe, archive standard materials. This is where the help of the student volunteers will be invaluable. As you can see from the image above, the slides will be far more accessible once they are properly packaged!
About Katharine Short
When I was 13 every careers questionnaire I did at school suggested I become an archivist. In rebellion I studied History of Art at Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute before giving in to the inevitable and undertaking a qualification in Archives Administration at Aberystwyth University. I worked at King’s College London Archives and the London Metropolitan Archives before becoming the Archivist here at DMU in January 2013. My role is hugely varied: answering enquiries and assisting researchers, sorting, cataloguing, cleaning and packaging archival material, managing our environmentally controlled storage areas, giving seminars, talks and tours, researching aspects of University history, liaising with potential donors and advocating for the importance of archives within the organisation. I am one of those incredibly fortunate people who can say ‘I love my job’ and really mean it.
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