The Chimes

On Completing the Graduate Diploma

by Dom Paul Forster

Back in 2017 I started a Graduate Diploma in Records Management and Archives through Curtin University. There were eight units in total and I studied one unit each semester through to completion in November 2021.

The units I studied included Information Design, Technologies for Information Services, Recordkeeping Concepts and Practice, Information Literacy, Management of Information Services, Conservation and Preservation, Enterprise Content Management and Archives Concepts and Practice.

The majority of this degree could be done online. Occasionally I would be required to go to Perth. Each week the lecturer would put up the material and students would be expected to watch the various videos and submit the assessment tasks through the online learning platform (known as the Blackboard system). Coming from a software development background, I found the technology unit particularly helpful in garnering an appreciation of what technologies libraries are using these days. The Enterprise Content Management unit focused on electronic document and records management systems and how these are integrated into businesses which was particularly interesting. The Archives and Recordkeeping units (Concepts and Practice and Conservation and Preservation) gave me a greater appreciation of the complexities around preserving and managing records.

As part of this degree there was a requirement to undertake a three-week practicum placement. I chose to do this at the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth Archives which is located in Highgate. So, from Tuesday the 10th August through until Monday the 30th August 2021 I was at the Archdiocesan Archives working closely with the Archivists there (Odhran O’Brien and Anne Wilson). The issues which concerned me most before I started the practicum was whether or not I had enough knowledge about archival practice to make a positive contribution to the Archdiocesan Archive. I had only completed the theory components and had relatively limited experience of working in an Archive at New Norcia. I have been living in the monastery now for the past six years so a lot of things can change in the technology world in that time. For the Practicum I worked on a number of small projects including the appraisal of Parish records from various archive boxes. I also catalogued items onto a Mosaic database. I learnt a lot about the inner workings of an archive and the various processes that are followed to accession records, itemise documents and record item level descriptions. During my time in Perth, I would stay at the Redemptorist monastery in Vincent Street North Perth. They were all most welcoming and showed me wonderful hospitality.

Overall, I found the study a challenging and incredibly rewarding experience. For one of the assessments, I had to write a 20-page business case complete with full costings, another time I produced a video presentation outlining the benefits of evidence-based practice from a medical librarian’s perspective. You could say the topics were diverse and often involved thinking creatively. One of the highlights was working with the other students enrolled from around Australia and gaining insights into a field that I knew little about when I began back in 2017. Hopefully I can put the skills learnt in the past four years to good use around the monastery library and archives.