Laura McCaughern

I graduated with a post-graduate diploma in Information Management and Preservation last year, and before that gained my undergraduate degree in History. Since then, I have mostly been working in the charity and archival sector. 

I am currently working in a front of house/admin role with Maryhill Museum. This post involves both handling customer inquiries, giving information about the building, and general administrative tasks. I have also accumulated a range of experience in completing projects within the archival environment. I’ve completed placements with the University of Stirling Archive, the University of Glasgow library and archive, the Dunkeld Community Archive, and with National Galleries of Scotland. My previous projects within academic repositories at Stirling and Glasgow were primarily focused on expanding public access to learning resources, and through this, empowering students and faculty. Both my current roles, working on projects with Dunkeld Community Archive and with the National Galleries of Scotland, involve employing appraisal strategies to improve both current and future collections held by the repositories. Additionally, all of these roles necessitated having comfortable IT skills, working from within a small team to facilitate the diverse needs of both students and administrators, and an awareness of new and continuing organizational initiatives. These projects also involved working with databases and sensitive material across a variety of software programs.  Because of these previous roles, I am confident in my ability to help individuals with identifying and interpreting information, while effectively maintaining the archive itself. Outside of the information services sector, I have also held several other voluntary posts. I have worked for several charities including food banks. These roles have given me key administrative experience. Through my roles working for charities, I have experience of working within a team to respond quickly and effectively to customer inquiries. I am extremely efficient at developing strong relationships with stakeholders to enhance service delivery and experience. As a person, I am highly organized with great interpersonal skills, a good communicator, and am able to multitask on both short- and long-term projects

Over the past several years, I have pursued an undergraduate degree in History with the University of Stirling, and a postgraduate diploma in Information Management and Preservation with the University of Glasgow. Relating particularly to the responsibilities of this role, through completing these academic courses, I have developed skills in areas such as: record handling, digitisation, cataloguing, metadata generation, data gathering, and retention and appraisal methodologies. I have gained the key competencies in archive management and maintenance that are necessary to be successful in this post. I also have significant experience in organising and filing information, including cataloguing and classifying materials. Specifically regarding IT, I also have experience in the software and relational databases relevant to working with library systems. I am extremely comfortable using programs such as Word, Excel, Sharepoint, and Filemaker. And further speaking to my IT proficiency, I also have an ECDL, gained through a program in high school. Both my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees emphasized organizational skills, attention to detail, problem-solving, written and oral skills, and information analysis.