Waiting for Seoul
Starting this week, we’ll be posting individual profiles for the 2016 bursary winners for ICA New Professionals Programme, who will attend the Congress in Seoul next September. They will soon be taking over the running of the New Professionals Facebook page and bi-monthly newsletter, so make sure you get to know them as they’ll be your point of contact for the ICA NP group for 2016-17!
This week, please meet Nicola Laurent, from England, now living in Australia.
“I am a Project Archivist on the Find & Connect web resource team at the eScholarship Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia. I have been a member of the team since mid-2014 after completing my Masters of Business Information Systems Professional at Monash University at the end of 2013, qualifying as a librarian, archivist and record-keeper. My study included a semester at Simmons College, Boston to gain an international perspective on library management, digital stewardship and archival theory.
As an active new professional within Melbourne, I am the Communications Officer for the Australian Society of Archivists Victorian Branch and the Secretary of GLAMR Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Records) New Professionals; a recently established group that aims to provide a space for those across the GLAM sector to engage while in the early stages of their careers.
My current research interests are the digital preservation of access via persistent links, particularly to library catalogues and archival collections and finding new accessible ways to disseminate the information available on the Find & Connect web resource via digital humanities tools.
I envisage that it will be an exciting and inspiring experience to attend the 2016 congress as a New Professional. It will be my first conference outside Australia and my first international archival conference, so I am passionate to cease this opportunity to attend to share experiences and gain understanding of how archival work is undertaken across the world.
I have found that attending conferences is an enriching experience – being exposed to a range of absorbing topics and connecting with people at a conference always reignites my passion for the work we do as archivists.
The opportunity to attend ICA 2016 will be a wonderful networking opportunity for me, a chance to connect both with New Professionals, who will one day be leaders in our field, and get to meet, hear and learn from experienced archival members. It will also be a great cultural experience getting to visit a new city and country that otherwise I am unlikely to have been able to visit.”
Register now to engage with Nicola Laurent and the other New Professionals!