Olivia Howarth Email & Phone Number

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

As an archivist within a national organisation, my role involves liaising with private depositors to facilitate the proper accessioning and cataloguing of records, ensuring they meet archival standards. I handle research enquiries, offering guidance and support with access to records through invigilating visits and digitisation. I also respond to offers of deposit to expand and enhance our collections in line with the organisation's Collections Development Policy. I support the work of the wider team through collaboration with colleagues to improve internal policies and workflows, striving to enhance the preservation, accessibility and security of archival records.

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Working with the Information Governance team, I prepared responses to subject access requests related to Scotland’s Redress Scheme, reducing backlogs and supporting the team's wider work. I helped to ensure official procedures were followed, and that consistent, accurate and helpful responses were provided. I monitored and improved information governance arrangements, updating and maintaining spreadsheet logs, templates and process documents.

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

In this position, I worked as part of the Government Records team, with a large part of my role involving client management. I engaged several public authorities with element 7 of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011, guiding them through the Transfer Agreement signing process, reviewing records and supporting the physical and digital transfer of records. I built and maintained spreadsheet trackers to improve team workflows and raise resilience. I also supported the wider work of the team, monitoring several mailboxes, answering enquiries, performing catalogue searching for Subject Access and FOI Requests. I gained invigilation experience through state client visits, undertook collections audit work, contributed to the annual file release of Cabinet records and provided cover for the Retransmissions Service.

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

I worked as part of the Research Information Systems team, part of the wider Library Research Support team at Edinburgh University. In my role, I supported the immediate team by answering enquiries, managing the UniDesk operator queue, writing user guides, maintaining University web pages and contributing to SharePoint user group sites. I also provided systems support by ensuring the accuracy of metadata records in the University’s current research information system (Pure), editing, cleaning and maintaining records. I also flagged issues presented by system integrations, escalating to relevant team members and helped with user test sessions following system upgrades. I was involved with preparing records for the 2021 REF submission in line with open access requirements and participated in user groups, working groups and events across the wider research support community within the University.

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Working as a Wellcome Trust project cataloguer with the National Records of Scotland, I became familiar with early 20th century medical terms and corresponding MeSH codes. I included these codes in a specially designed database to capture the medical history of WW1 soldiers and make it more accessible. I also used my handling skills to paginate and re-house the documents in new files and boxes.

Buckinghamshire

I worked as a member of the Bletchley Park Visitor Services Team, where my role was to ensure visitors enjoyed their experience of the Park. This was a public-facing position which enabled me to utilise my knowledge of the Park and its history in my interactions with visitors. I gained further experience using EPOS systems at the admissions desk and in the site shop, to process payments, gift aid donations and online bookings, which developed my product knowledge. I also learnt about the preparation and maintenance of multimedia equipment and demonstrated these guides to visitors.

Glasgow, United Kingdom

During my time with Photo-Me Retail I worked in a public-facing role, helping to maximise sales by up-selling products and being aware of promotions. I operated printing equipment in store, and ensured all products were made with a high standard of care and attention to detail. In addition, I worked independently to process payments and online orders and aided customers in their use of self-service machines. I was also responsible for maintaining product knowledge, answering enquiries and resolving customer complaints in line with company policy. This position enabled me to learn more about the photo-retail industry and develop my knowledge of copyright laws concerning reproductions.

University Of Glasgow Archive Services

I took part in a digital preservation traineeship, one of the six Skills for the Future traineeships run by the Scottish Council on Archives 2015-2016 as part of the Opening Up Scotland's Archives project. It was a fantastic experience learning about both the traditional skills and digital frontier of archive practice. As I was hosted by the University of Glasgow, I was afforded amazing insight into both institutional memory archives and commercial business archives, as it houses the University's records and the Scottish Business Archive. I furthered my understanding of digital preservation through completion of an undergraduate module from the University of Dundee, working with the Digital Preservation Coalition, attending conferences and workshops, and through a placement with the University's Research Data Management team.http://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/sffhttp://www.gla.ac.uk/services/archives/

I worked in Cafe Octavia, housed in the Scottish Opera Production building in Glasgow. My main duties included the preparation of food and drink, customer service, handling and organising stock, cleaning and maintenance of seating area and kitchen. This position enabled me to keep my customer-service skills well-honed and gain experience in a busy cafe environment.

Glasgow, United Kingdom

I worked in a customer-facing role in the childrenswear and toy department of Debenhams' flagship Glasgow store. I became proficient in many tasks important to the upkeep and advancement of the department including delivery, recovery, online orders at the in-store kiosk, processing till transactions and cashing up. These responsibilities were especially important over the busy Christmas period and I always fulfilled them with the customer in mind.

Postgraduate Diploma, Archive And Records Management, Distinction

I studied for my PG Dip through part-time distance learning with the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University.

Ma Hons, Film And Television Studies, First

Activities and Societies: Imperfectionist Creative Society, University of Glasgow Ordinary Board Member - Helping raise awareness.