University of Birmingham Hiring for Project Archivist – Library Services – 99990 Job at Birmingham, England Full Time

Position Details

Library Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,924 to £30,497, with potential progression once in post to £34,304.

Grade 6

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to June 2023.

Closing date: 24th July 2022

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham.

Background

Special Collections is a division of Library Services at the University of Birmingham, and is responsible for the Cadbury Research Library and the University’s Modern Records (Records Management) service. The collections of the Cadbury Research Library have been built up over a period of 120 years and consist of approximately 200,000 pre-1850 books dating from 1471 and some 3 million manuscripts, all of which distinguish the University of Birmingham’s Special Collections as a major UK research library.

The Special Collections Department is responsible for directly supporting the University’s research, learning and teaching agenda. The University’s archive collecting policy focuses in particular on religious and political archives, together with literary papers and papers of non-governmental organisations.

This post is funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of an initiative to improve access to the YMCA and Youth Hostels Association archives by cataloguing and making materials accessible through the online catalogue (CALM). The project will run until 30 June 2023 and it is intended that the collections will be fully catalogued on the CALM database.

Role Summary

The post holder will be responsible for cataloguing, and making available through the online archive catalogue, the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) archive held by the University of Birmingham. The post holder will report to the Project Manager and will work closely with the other archivists as part of a team to make accessible the archive collections of the University.

The post holder will work alongside another Project Archivist for the duration of the project, and will also assist in directing the work of an Archive Assistant. The Project Archivist will survey the YHA archive, catalogue materials and screen items for Data Protection issues. They will also undertake various activities in order to promote the archive including the design and delivery of teaching sessions; curation of exhibitions; and the presentation of conference papers when appropriate.

Main Duties

Fully catalogue the YHA archive:

• Devise workable cataloguing structures and catalogue all materials within the YHA archive

• In liaison with colleagues correcting and improving the existing finding aid with relevance to International Standard of Archival Description (general) standards

• Inputting the corrected finding aid into CALM

• Screening all materials for issues surrounding Data Protection and corporate sensitivities, ensuring a consistent approach is adopted across the collection with closure decisions properly documented

• Co-ordinate the labelling, re-boxing and re-packaging of the collection where necessary, including liaising with the Conservation team on conservation measures

• Making the final catalogue available through the Special Collections archive catalogue through the University web pages

Promote the YHA archive in order to improve visibility of the archive:

• Initiate contact, and build working relationships, with academic departments at the University of Birmingham to encourage use of the collection for teaching and research

• Lead under-graduate and post-graduate teaching sessions and actively work with students to develop engagement with the collection

• Create a detailed YHA subject and resource guide for distribution

• To share information with the widest possible range of people through the design of exhibitions and by using different social media (project blog, Flickr, Twitter etc)

• Develop approaches to sustain ongoing relationships with research communities

• Liaise with colleagues at YHA, maintaining contact throughout the project

Supporting the Project Manager, undertaking enquiries and effectively working as part of the wider Project Team:

• To deal with routine day-to-day enquiries relating to the YHA archive, ensuring that materials remain available to researchers throughout the project

• To support the Project Manager in allocating and supervising the delegation of tasks to be undertaken by the Archive Assistant; other support staff within Special Collections; University of Birmingham student interns; and any volunteers working on the project

• To support the Project Manager with effective feedback, and progress reports, to the funding body, the Project Steering Group, and YHA themselves

• To liaise with the Head of Conservation to purchase preservation supplies and co-ordinate repackaging activities

• To play an active part in team meetings for both the project and the wider Special Collections department

Carry out any other duties commensurate with the grade

Person Specification

• Formal education to degree level

• A postgraduate qualification in Archive work

• Proven experience of cataloguing large archive collections through to completion

• Proven experience of developing cataloguing structures

• Practical experience of cataloguing manuscript material on to CALM or a similar system

• An understanding of the link between teaching and research and the importance of manuscripts and archives in the pedagogic process

• An understanding of the application of relevant legislation to archives and library collections including Freedom of Information, GDPR and Copyright Legislation

• Excellent oral and written communication skills

• Good interpersonal skills

• Strong ability to prioritise and to schedule workloads in the face of conflicting demands

• Ability to work within a team environment

• Sound knowledge of current legislation and standards affecting the storage and management of manuscripts and archives

• Ability to work alone following clear directions with minimal supervision asking for advice and guidance when appropriate

• Excellent presentation skills and an enthusiasm to present lectures, facilitate student teaching sessions and lead group visits

• Experience of directing the work of other members of a team

• Experience in project management and development

• Experience of communicating with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders with diverse professional and academic backgrounds

• A commitment to optimising the use and benefits of information technology

Informal enquires to Mark Eccleston, email: m.r.eccleston@bham.ac.uk

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.