2024 Heritage Projects: Rhiannon Day, Heritage Communications Placement

Digital Heritage Internship, Temple of Peace Archives

Rhiannon Day, MA International Public Relations and Communications, Cardiff University.

Rhiannon has been undertaking an internship supporting the updating and digitisation of WCIA’s Hidden Histories feature articles, which will be uploaded as PDFs to People’s Collection Wales for long-term access into the future, and printed versions deposited with the National Library of Wales, so that these become accessible to future generations beyond the lifespan of the existing WCIA website. This work is part of WCIA’s contribution towards ‘Our Heritage Our Stories‘, who have kindly funded this internship enabling WCIA to undertake this work.

Rhiannon’s Blog – Learning from the Placement

After completing my undergraduate degree in International Studies last year in Canada, I knew that I wanted to get involved in the work of internationalism particularly related to Wales when I arrived to start my Master’s degree at Cardiff University. This role with the Welsh Centre of International Affairs not only fulfilled my desire to get involved in the community, but also to use my undergraduate degree in a meaningful way, applying my knowledge and skills to real-world projects focusing on peace and cooperation. Overall, this internship has not only provided me with digital content management skills, but also gave me insights into the rich history of Wales and the impactful work of the WCIA and the Temple of Peace in Cardiff.

One of my primary responsibilities as the Digital Heritage Intern was to edit and repackage the Hidden Histories work done by insights, interns, and staff of the WCIA in the past. To start, I conducted a comprehensive audit of the WCIA’s content, detailing the specific tasks needed for each piece of work: the length, status of content on a scale of 1-3, the bilingual status, the content included in each story, and a ‘to-do’ list for each piece. Because of the nature of the content, there was a lot of work to be done to ensure that each piece of work had not only working links and up-to-date information, but also making sure that the edits that were being done were protected from future website updates that may affect the content. Following the audit, I designed a new logo for the Hidden Histories project, ensuring it reflected the essence of the initiative. After many conversations with the staff at the WCIA, a few Procreate tutorials, and some trial and error, the new logo is a bilingual graphic of the Temple of Peace facade, tying the pdf’s into a cohesive compilation of content. I then created a template for each of the pieces, incorporating the new logo on the title pages, graphics, and overall organisation to maintain a consistent and professional look throughout. My next step was to prioritise each piece of content by its usage frequency, identifying the ‘most-used’ materials to focus efforts effectively. Throughout the process, I ensured all content remained engaging, interesting, and appropriate for the WCIA’s audience. Additionally, I developed a systematic approach to document the procedures and templates, keeping detailed spreadsheets and timetables with notes, making the project easily reproducible for future interns, ensuring its sustainability and continued success.

Not only did this experience give me insights into the organisation needed to conduct a project like this one, but it also gave me informative insights into the rich history and culture of peace in Wales, allowing me to get further involved into my new community. I am incredibly grateful for the time and support that Craig, Sam, Chris, and the rest of the team at the WCIA showed me over the past few months, and am excited to see the work that will be done following this project. If you take anything out of reading this post, take this as an encouragement to visit the People’s Collection of Wales website, and take a perusal of the pdf’s available on the WCIA website. This organisation is a wealth of information, it’s just up to you to take a gander!

To cohesively bring these stories into a collection to be uploaded to the People’s Collection of Wales in order to protect and preserve this work for future generations has been an incredibly fulfilling task, allowing me to contribute to the ongoing legacy of work at the WCIA. This internship has been a professional milestone filled with learning opportunities and insights into Wales, and I am more than grateful for the opportunity to contribute to such a meaningful project. I look forward to seeing and reading the hidden histories yet to be uncovered by future interns.

Outputs

Updated Publications:

People’s Collection Wales – collections linked to Hidden History features

Hidden Histories Collection, WCIA Peace Archives
David Davies Collection
Minnie James Collections