It is good to be back! Previously, I was at Wessex for seven years as a Project Officer and was involved in site excavations, desk-based assessments, archive preparation and finds analysis. I left in 2002 to be a Finds Manager.
Before Wessex I graduated from Bradford University a very long time ago and worked mainly with the then Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust and English Heritage specialising in finds particularly ceramics.
Later I had a break from archaeology and worked within the library service thinking it would be just for a few months but ended up being there for 10 years. I thought I had left it too late to try and return to archaeology, thankfully I had some new transferable skills and luckily for me there was still a backlog of archives to work on.
I feel that the disciplines of librarianship and archaeology are similar as they both seek to inform and make use of knowledge. Archiving aims to provide a resource that can be revisited and reinterpreted whilst promoting the advancement of education and heritage. It is an exciting time to be a part of the archives team as new countrywide initiatives are taking place.