Doing their bit - part 2

D/DLI 2/7/18(116) 'Mining operations, Armentieres 1915', from the 7th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, Officer's Mess album

This is the second of our posts about the experience of volunteers on our project.  This piece has been written by Kate:

I first started volunteering on the Durham WW1 project back in September 2013 and have done so since in person and online, which has been extremely convenient.

The staff were so warm and welcoming and had no pre-conditions on how much they wanted you to do as they said it was totally up to the individual. This was great because it allowed me to ease into the work. The variety of work they have provided has been very interesting and I have done transcription, indexing and research using both original and online material.

The history of Durham is rich and diverse and having had the opportunity to delve deeper into it with this WW1 community project has brought me closer to the heritage of this city.

  

One of things Kate did whilst staying abroad was a survey of some our collections using the online catalogue.  This was to see if there could potentially be First World War related material in collections other than the Durham Light Infantry, such as our mining collections.  This project is an opportunity for the interrogation of collections beyond their initial focus.  On returning to the UK, Kate was able to follow up this survey by going through some of the records she had identified.