Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Rachael’s:

I’m Rachael, a second-year Classical studies and English student, reaching the end of my internship at the Digital Humanities Lab. This has been one of the most valuable experiences that I have undertaken during my time in Exeter so far, not just because I have learned a huge variety of new digital skills and increased my passion for preservation, but because of the wonderful team and fellow interns that have made this opportunity so fun.

During my time at the Lab, I have worked on all sorts of projects, tackling digitisation in formats that I never would have thought that I could work with before. I now feel experienced in handling many types of materials: posters, books, tapes, postcards, negatives and more. From taking photos of every conceivable angle of a traffic cone in Reed Hall resulting in a photogrammetry model, to multicoloured 3D printing and creating RTI models of my own jewellery, I have found that no two days or projects at DH ever look the same. The internship is very dynamic, and I found that I could tailor it according to my interests, which I really valued.

I particularly enjoyed gaining photography experience through working on more extended projects in term 2, including doing digitisation work on the Valor Ecclesiasticus project. It has been really exciting to take part in a project with a clear goal: making the ‘Tudor Domesday Book’ more widely accessible. Working with Dr. Charlotte Tupman and the rest of the DH team on this has felt really rewarding and has certainly taught me a lot about photography, editing and resilience! I have found that the experiences in DH that I have valued most have been those that have included working with others: whether that was using GIS to Georeference arial imagery of Northern Chile or contributing to digitising the Theo Brown Archive, which is full of interesting folklore and stories.

It makes me really proud to realise that I have learned so much in a year about digital preservation and the techniques that go into it. The DH team have been so supportive of all of the interns and have helped develop my confidence in working with technology and knowing how to troubleshoot it! They are also highly understanding of the fact that interns are balancing this work alongside their degree, which I have been very grateful for. I have gained a deeper appreciation of heritage work through this internship, and I hope to use the skills that I have gained from it, both technical and interpersonal, to pursue further work in this field.