Interested in archives - what kind of study should I do?

[glasjam]

Ok - I am an older mother - had my second at 40. Worked in the media - recently thought about what I really liked about my work and it was always - research, people, history, etc.

Have decided that I will never go back to the work I did before - it is completely incompatible with the type of family life I want. Wondered about working in an archive, library type setting. Have an ancient Fine Arts Degree - what could I study to further this interest and get me some gainful employment.

Not interested in raking in money - want short hours - but can put in time for study. Does anyone have any advice about good courses out there?

The more I think about the idea of "archives" the more I think it is such an area of growth. Everyday people now possess sooo much in the way of personal archive, - old emails, facebook pages, photos on phones, cameras etc. children's drawings - it's like WALL-e with all those mountains except it's not rubbish it's just the accumulated histories of people's lives.

Have never posted on this thread before. It is probably very quiet. Am sorry for this outburst.

Any advice warmly received.

This is something I've been considering too
Have you tried here? There are a few Masters degrees in records management and there are paid trainee posts. Have you thought about Heritage Management as an alternative? I've just found this and there are distance learning courses too.

Thanks for that HTH - they are really useful links - have just had a quick look at them - will take a longer look later when the kids are in bed. Thanks for taking the time to post them - you were up late too were you?!

I believe there are MA courses in archive management (UCL may do a course). I worked on a short project once in an archive and was told that it was extremely difficult to get jobs in the sector and that you had to be prepared to work as a volunteer for some time to get experience before you had a chance of getting a job.
Records management is a little different as this generally means organising the current and recent records of an organisation and is part of what is now known as knowledge management.

I am interested in this sort of thing too - by coincidence I have just been reading job profiles on the museums association website

I am appalled to discover that even with an MA (I currently have just a degree and no experience) and experience you can work as a curator etc and expect to earn up to £20,000

So for me that would mean studying for an MA acquring a £££ debt, then working fulltime as a lone parent for £20,000!

This was my dream job - I am seriously reconsidering my options and am gutted frankly

I did an MA in Museum Studies but in the same department there was an MA in Heritage Education and Interpretation... not exactly what you described but the degree has led lots of its graduates to work in archive-related posts. The course itself was very interesting and I loved it. And your thoughts on personal archives would be an amazing dissertation topic!

The downside is, like Yurtgirl said, many posts are very low-paying. And it is a challenge to get into the field- as Lilymaid said, you would have to do some volunteering during your course to get ahead- even if it was a few hours a week. But, if money isn't that much of an issue then working in museums/archives can be very interesting.

Not sure where you are but Leicester and Newcastle both have excellent MA programmes, both have heritage-focused MA's. Good luck!

Ha ha, just realised that I replied to this thread and it was written in October! Anyway, hope this helps someone!