All Change!

Another week that whizzed by at 100 miles per hour!

The good news ... after my interview on Thursday I was offered a part-time job as an archivist. This means that from the middle of April I will have TWO jobs in the same place - I will still be doing 2.5 days a week cataloguing and will also be working as an archivist for another 2 days a week. That adds up to pretty much full time, which is a bit scary! In September the hours will change to 2 days a week cataloguing and 3 days a week as an archivist, so will be truly full time. Fortunately that is only going to be a temporary thing. When my existing contract expires in July 2013 I will be left with the three days a week archivist's job, which is exactly what I was hoping for when I started out on this road. So, the next year or so is going to be pretty hectic.

Working full time isn't ideal but it is manageable, though I'm glad it is only going to be temporary. Fortunately Tevye works at home two days a week and will be able to get home early enough on one other day to collect Rose from school. I will be able to collect her on Fridays, and she will go to after school club for about three-quarters of an hour on Mondays until Helen can pick her up on her way home from school. Between my holidays from work (I get 26 days annual leave), Tevye's work at home days and some baby sitting help from Helen and Marie we can cover school holidays without it getting too stressful.

Oh, and I'm still going to be studying for my archive qualification. Eek! I'm looking forward to starting the job and getting the chance to put theory into practice though.

Vile November

From the archives last week ... a law suit that could have come straight out of Jane Austen or Dickens. I listed over one hundred documents last week, and suspect there are at least as many to go - a mix of reports of court proceedings, lawyers' notes and letters.

The gist of the case was that in 1811 a certain clergyman was accused of not being resident in his parishes, contrary to a recent Act of Parliament . Given that he had two - one in Yorkshire and one in Buckinghamshire - residing simultaneously in both would have been somewhat difficult. His reason for not living in either was that the rectories of both needed too much expensive work to make them habitable for his family. He claimed that he had permission from the bishop to live away from his parishes, and had paid a vicar to perform his duties in both - there didn't seem to be any question that his parishioners were provided for spiritually. He was also working as a clergyman in another Buckinghamshire parish, without pay other than the provision of a house.

The odd thing was that it seemed he was the victim of a vindictive prosecution. I don't know enough about legal processes at the time to be sure, but I think an accuser in a lawsuit at this time could claim financial compensation from the accused even if the accuser himself had not suffered any damages. Poor Reverend Archibald was accused by a local man known to be a money-grabber, who had recently incurred costs in an unrelated lawsuit of his own and apparently spotted an opportunity to make this back and more - the amount he claimed from the clergyman ran to several thousand pounds. One pathetic letter from the Reverend told his lawyer that in the past November had been a favourite month, but that this November he could call "nothing but vile". Things were so black he was tempted to hang himself. Several months later he had passed beyond anger with his accuser to resignation and pity.

Despite Reverend Archibald's best efforts he initially lost the case, then reopened it claiming that there were errors in the legal process. This is where I left it. Presumably further down in the box will be something that describes the ultimate outcome of the case. I hope the poor clergyman won in the end!

Yikes!

I GOT THE JOB!

Which is ... I think! I hope! ... a very good thing. The oddest part is that I wasn't even looking for paid work. Full time isn't an option - I know my limits, and combining full time work, studying and caring for a family is beyond them - and part time jobs for unqualified archivists are very, very few and far between, so I had assumed that I would just work through my course, carry on volunteering in an archive and then start job hunting once I had qualified. Then I stumbled across this opportunity and it looked too good not to apply. And now, gulp, it seems I have rather unexpectedly acquired a job.

So, this is the deal ... I will be working five mornings a week at a county record office (not the one I volunteer at now, but the next nearest), cataloguing 19th century court records. From the point of view of whatever future career I have in archives it is ideal, as many jobs for qualified archivists want applicants to have some experience of cataloguing. And it is an interesting project - the documents give a good insight into the social history of Victorian England, so will be intriguing to work with. I will be job sharing with another cataloguer, and working alongside volunteers who are cleaning, sorting and packaging the documents. (This is a big plus - I have looked at the equivalent records at my current archive, and they are a mess. Filthy dirty and hard to flatten out enough to read after a century or so rolled up.)  The project lasts for two years, which is perfect timing. The job will end in June/July 2013 and I am aiming to finish my course in April 2013, so will then be in a good position to look for a job as a qualified archivist with cataloguing experience.

The working arrangements are about as good as they can get, with 26 days holiday leave each year and flexible working hours which mean I can bank extra hours and trade them for days off. I will get home in time to collect Cherub from school every day, and will be able to be home quite a lot during school holidays. Tevye and Angel between them can mostly manage getting Cherub to school in the mornings, or I can drop her at the school breakfast club on my way to work if necessary. On the days I have to work during school holidays, Tevye or Angel will be at home with her. Overall the impact on her should be minimal. The pay isn't great, but is at least a lot better than nothing!

3 Quick Takes: 4th March 2011

I am under par this week - struggling through a combination of a bruised back and a mild stomach bug - and can't summon up seven thoughts. Three will have to do.

1. My link of the week ... the high church of Chiatura in Georgia. Eek! Eek, eek, EEK! As someone who is not keen on heights, I feel dizzy just looking at the picture. (HT: The Hermeneutic of Continuity).

2. I have been looking at archives of electronic records this week. Did you know that the internet is archived? Type in a URL and the Wayback Machine will show you what the site looked like at various points in the past.  For the UK, selected web sites are saved at the UK Web Archive maintained by the British Library. You can search by title, or explore a number of special collections.

3. As I put Cherub to bed the other night she was contemplating ordinal numbers. She told me her birthday is third (after Angel and Tevye), then counted "first, second, third, fourth, fifth ... [pause to consider] ... but I don't know where 'last' comes!" Tricky concept that. First relates to a number, so why not last?

Hobbits were Archivists

How cool is that!

The introduction to Lord of the Rings ends with a section titled 'Note on the Shire Records'. I particularly liked this description of some of the hobbits' activities as collecting archivists:

At Great Smials the books were of less interest to Shire-folk, though more important for larger history. None of them was written by Peregrin, but he and his successors collected many manuscripts written by scribes of Gondor: mainly copies or summaries of histories or legends relating to Elendil and his heirs. Only here in the Shire were to be found extensive materials for the history of Nung of Sauron. It was probably at Great Smials that The Tale of Years was put together, with the assistance of material collected by Meriadoc.

I would have inflicted more on you, but typing out the whole section would take too long.