Working at Museums Australia WA

Hello everyone!

My name is Cheryl Har and I am one of the two UWA students doing an internship at Museums Australia WA this semester.

Before I started this internship, I was one of those people who did not really have a clue about the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes and therefore I am quite excited to have this opportunity. I know have been lurking in the background so far on here but I am hoping to be able participate more in the discussions as I learn more from now on.

As Jenna mentioned in her most recent blog post here, my main project during my time here will be working on the archives project. There have really been some fascinating things we've found in the boxes, some of which include:

+ Various educational materials and brochures previously used by the museum
+ A discussion paper from a forum conducted by National Museums Australia titled, "Museums: An argument with their own society." Along with the propsals for action.
+ Photos from past museum workshops and such
+ Newsletters such as Midwest, The Country Museum and Newsflash
+ Slides of posters designed for a competition in 1993 International Museums Week
+ Donated books etc. etc.

Also as part of the archive project I have been assigned the task of learning how to use Tabularium. Which is proving to be quite a challenge at the moment as I have absolutely no background in archiving whatsoever. I must admit that just getting through the manual proved a bit of a challenge for me even with the demo examples.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience or tips for me about working with Tabularium or any other archiving program. Anything and everything, no matter how big or small would be very much appreciated.

I was also hoping to create maybe a simple timeline of significant events regarding Museums Australia WA which we then would be able to stick up on the website. What are some events that have occured over the years which have stood out for you?

This blog will be my little space for sharing my thoughts and findings as I go on this learning curve. I also plan on taking notes and hopefully at the end produce a basic guide of sorts so that laymen like me are able to easily enter items into the database.So please feel free to stop by anytime at my page if you'd like to discuss anything or even to just say hi.