Overview
Since 2020, we have run an annual digital peer mentoring programme as part of our digital capacity building strategy for the archives sector. We match UK-based archive professionals with an experienced digital professional to work on a digital project within their workplace for a period of six months. The programme is fully remote and meetings between mentors and mentees take place online.
My mentor has been amazing and incredibly supportive through what has turned out to be a very challenging time for both myself and the institution that I work for.
Mentees have come from business archives, university archives, charities, museums, community archives and local authority archives and have received support with digital engagement activity, preservation and wider digital strategy, digital methods and approaches to digital access. Mentors have come from archives including The National Archives, National Records of Scotland, Cambridge University, Borthwick Institute of Archives, Gloucestershire Archives, Imperial War Museum and the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick.
I have had conversations I would not have had the confidence to have before.
Projects
Projects receiving support from mentors have included:
- Developing a digital strategy and a digital advocacy programme to make the case for investment in digital preservation capacity
- Researching and implementing software and workflows to improve access to digital materials
- Implementing digital preservation procedures and tools from scratch
- Support for digital engagement and storytelling using collections
Could you be a digital mentor?
Our next round of peer mentoring begins in January 2025 and we are looking for mentors to join the programme! Mentors are matched with a mentee for a six month digital project. You meet fortnightly (remotely) with your mentee over that time to support them through a digital project, formed by them with your support. We offer full training for mentors and welcome professionals who have not mentored before but are looking to continue their professional development with this opportunity. Mentors are fully supported throughout the programme by a professional mentoring coach.
If you would be interested in participating in the programme, please email Caroline Catchpole (caroline.catchpole@nationalarchives.gov.uk), programme lead, and tell us a little about your past experience and skill set and which of the following areas you think you might be able to provide support:
- Digital preservation
- Digital engagement (web services, storytelling, design or social media)
- Digital strategy
- Data analysis
- Digitisation
- Academic collaboration
- User research
Your expertise may be concentrated in a single area or several – this is to help us match mentees with mentors who can support their needs and interests. We are looking for expressions of interest rather than cast iron commitments at this stage and the possibility exists that you may not be matched, should the mentee cohort be interested in some areas and not others.
Apply to the peer mentoring programme
Applications for the next round of peer mentoring are now open. If you have a digital project in mind that could benefit from the help of a mentor, please fill out the expression of interest form. Please note, places are limited and the closing date for EOI’s is 14th November 2024.
If you are interested in hearing more about the programme and the work of our digital mentees, there is a recording of the Digital Archives Learning Exchange (DALE) from December 2021 on YouTube that focuses on the programme.