Volunteer Week - Explore Your Archive volunteer - Karyn Williamson

For volunteer week this year we are hosting guest blogs by Explore Your Archive volunteers as the campaign celebrates its 10th anniversary. Karyn Williamson writes our first guest blog:

I began volunteering for the Explore Your Archive Campaign in 2017 after 4 years volunteering for the ARA in various roles across different nations and sections. When I started volunteering with the ARA, it was because I wanted to increase my network and meet new people. I was working towards registration at the time and used volunteering as a way to learn a range of skills I wasn’t able to through my paid role. However, when I started working on the Explore Your Archive Campaign, it was for very different reasons.  

Although the campaign had launched with a bang some years before, funding had been withdrawn and the only aspect of the campaign still going strong was the annual hashtag campaign on twitter in November, and an annual campaign event in Ireland. I was really excited about the campaign launch and felt that the Explore Your Archive message was so strong it deserved to run long term and continue to bring the sector together in a way that nothing else had managed to before. All it needed was someone to run and promote the campaign. So I volunteered to take on the role.

Originally, me and a social media officer extended the annual hashtag campaign on twitter to a monthly hashtag campaign to complement the focus week at the end of November. Then work started on re designing the website, which launched during the Focus week in 2017. The campaign has grown from strength to strength since then and now 21 volunteers work on various aspects of the campaign. Our social media presence has grown to include, X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and Mastadon. We provide a wide range of learning resources on the website including how to guides for those visiting archives for the first time. We have an online exhibition page which gives archives a space to promote their records and we have two seasons of the Outside The Box podcast available. Our blog posts are updated every month, and the website is continually updated with new resources and content. With over 1,800 visits to the website each month and the last Focus week bringing in over 17million impressions and views across social media, the growth of the campaign is clear.

The Explore Your Archive campaign is an example of what can be achieved by volunteering to make things better for the sector. No one on the campaign is paid for the work they do and yet no other archive advocacy campaign has had the impact that Explore Your Archive has.

On a personal level, I have learnt so many skills that I would never have had the chance to learn as part of my paid role, and I’ve met so many people that I would never have had the chance to otherwise, many of whom have become lifelong friends. I started to volunteer with the Explore campaign because I felt that I could make a difference to the sector but looking back, it is clear the volunteering has improved my life and my career in so many ways. I feel lucky to work with such a great team for such a worthwhile campaign and would encourage anyone thinking of taking on a volunteer role to go for it. The negatives are far outweighed by the positives, and you might just make some new friends too!