Job Description
About Us
We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.
Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.
We employ 1100 staff, and engage with 200+ volunteers in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.
Diversity and inclusion matter to us.
Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment.
We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.
About the role
To support best practice management of the Natural History Museum’s unique archive, the Library and Archive team is aiming to fully barcode the Museum’s institutional archive. This task is a huge undertaking, so to make this goal more manageable and measurable, we are prioritising distinct collections based on need and research value.
For our first project, we will target series DF/ADM/1004 – Central Administration the Director’s Office, Case and Policy files. This collection is comprised of 935 files covering all aspects of Museum life, from research into the Loch Ness Monster to bequests and building management. The files span from 1882 to 2001. All files need rehousing in archival grade packaging to aid long term preservation, and barcoding to enable efficient retrieval and to track usage. Completing each section of the Archive brings us closer to a fully barcoded collection and our long-term vision for the Library and Archives at NHM.
About you
We are looking for two volunteers who can work together, with the support of the Museum Archivist, to repackage, barcode and amend the catalogue record on our archival collections management software, Calm, for priority collection DF/ADM/1004 – Central Administration the Director’s Office, Case and Policy files, 1882-2001.
Main tasks will include:
- Careful handling of paper archives and photographs
- Careful repackaging of paper archives and photographs
- Attention to detail in relabelling and repackaging papers
- Amending the CMS (collections management system) Calm record
- Lifting and movement of boxes as necessary
Person Specification
Essential
- Competent standard of English literacy and numeracy
- Willingness to work within a small team
- Good manual dexterity as aligned to the main tasks for the role
- Interest in working with museum collections
- An ability to remain motivated while completing repetitive work
- Attention to detail, and an ability to work through detailed processes
Desirable
- General IT skills
Time commitment
1 day per week for 3 months, ideally on a Monday, 10am – 4pm, but these hours are open to discussion should you be called for interview.
Thriving at the Museum: the way we work
We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum’s values and forms the framework for the way we work.
Find out more here
What we offer
As a Museum volunteer you can receive:
- Discount in the Museum shops and cafes (seasonal variations may apply)
- Benugo meal vouchers to cover expenses in the staff canteen
- Free access to temporary exhibitions at the NHM (via official letter)
- Access to exhibitions at other Museums which support this reciprocal benefit (via official letter)
- Opportunities to attend relevant talks and seminars
- Free copies of in-house museum magazines (NHM Magazine and WILDWORLD)
How to apply
If this sounds like you, please apply below by clicking on Apply for job.
Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view candidate details at shortlisting stage.
Closing date: 23:59 on 1 November
Interviews expected: w/c 9 November