Saturday 20 September 2008

Some endings and some beginnings

I haven't blogged for a good long time now because things have been extremely hectic for the last few months.

Those of you who have been following the course of my dissertation on this blog may be interested to know that I submitted the dissertation at the start of September. After months of hard work it was a huge relief to post it off. I'm now concentrating on not re-reading the bound copy that arrived in the post recently for fear of finding typos!

Even without my dissertation, I've contrived to continue to feel extremely busy recently. Part of the reason for this is that I am (on Monday) leaving the BPMA. A few weeks before my dissertation was due to be completed, a job came up that I couldn't possibly justify not applying for. The job was E-Learning Officer (Web) at the Museum of London. The job description seemed too good to be true. The person spec described a person with experience in all the things I have worked on in the last year: web strategy, user testing and user consultation, liaising with external contractors etc. The aspects that I hadn't covered as Web Officer at the BPMA I had relevant experience of from my time as Access Officer when I created educational resources as well as working on web stuff. I put together my application and, on 8 August I was interviewed. I had no idea what to expect but a couple of days later I was offered the job and start on 29 September.

I will be sorry to leave the BPMA after three good years building up invaluable experience and working on some great projects with some really dedicated and enthusiastic people. One of the projects that I will be most sorry not to see to completion is the Last Post: Remembering the First World War exhibition. I have worked on the text writing and preparation for this exhibition, together with BPMA Curator, Chris Taft and look forward to seeing the final product at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms from 6 November 2008. It's a fascinating exploration of the vital role and contribution that the Post Office made to the First World War. It outlines aspects of the organisation's involvement in the war effort which one might never consider when thinking about the history of the Great War in general.

I'm excited now by the new challenges that the Museum of London will present. As a much larger, and better known museum, I imagine many aspects of working there may well be different to the BPMA. I'm particularly looking forward to changing my focus back slightly more towards learning. Whilst I've really enjoyed developing an interest in all things to do with0 museum websites in general over the last year, my original reason for working in museums was always to promote an alternative perspective to learning. Many of my relatives are involved in education in one form or another, and whilst I always knew I didn't want to be a classroom teacher myself, I have always been surrounded by people with a strong passion for the importance of learning.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog about my dissertation. I'll be sure to post about my results when they finally come out (could be up to six months apparently). I intend, now, to make my blog a bit more general, commenting on articles and lectures/talks/training sessions that I attend as part of my new role. I might also occasionally comment on other stuff unrelated to my job, I haven't decided yet! I hope that you will continue to read the posts which I hope to write a bit more frequently now. Thank you to those of you have commented on my blog so far, I hope you and others will continue to do into the future.

4 Comments:

Blogger Frankie Roberto said...

Congrats from me. Hope you enjoy the MoL!

21 September 2008 at 09:51  
Blogger Mia Ridge said...

Congratulations! It's a shame we won't overlap - I've already started at the Science Museum. They're really excited about you joining - I hope you enjoy it. MoL is full of great people.

21 September 2008 at 14:58  
Blogger Rhiannon Looseley said...

Thanks both! Very nice of you!

21 September 2008 at 18:47  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Many congratulations - both on getting the dissertation in, and on the new job - best of luck!

29 September 2008 at 10:37  

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