My first experiences

The first two weeks went by very quickly. I arrived on Friday the 11th of October but sadly, my baggage did not. I had to wait two days for my baggage, as it came on Sunday evening to my flat in Anniesland Glasgow. With all my belongings, I was able to start fresh into the new week and with that, start my internship at the University of Glasgow.

According to the plan of program, that I got before I came, I would stay for the first three weeks in the Archives & Special Collections of the University. They are located at 13 Thurso Street in the West end of Glasgow. The University Library is at a different place. Roughly 10 minutes away from the Archives & Special Collections.

I was nervous about the work that I had to do, since I made an apprenticeship in a library and not in an archive. Nonetheless, I was relieved to finally get to work and to settle in. First, I was introduced to everyone, got shown around and I introduced myself to the team. My new colleagues gave me a warm welcome and made it easy for me to settle in. I realised that you do not have to be from Glasgow to work in Glasgow. I never actually thought about that. Many of my colleagues are from England and have a different accent than the Glaswegian. I understood them quite easily and I could even understand most of the Scottish people. Not all of them, but most of them.

I started with cataloguing of a special collection, assisting of the document delivery assistant and the digitisation of old photographs of the University. I will continue with this for my next few weeks, if the program does not change.

So far, it has been a very enjoyable experience working in the Archive & Special Collections and I am excited for more to come!