This is a rare and exciting opportunity to play a key part in an Archives packing, barcoding and storage programme, and for individuals wishing to work in collection care and conservation archives at a paraprofessional level before, or while, undertaking professional training with flexibility to work on a part or full time basis.
Since 2014 the Archives Accommodation Programme (AAP) has been considering options to improve the Parliamentary Archives’ accommodation, to support Parliament's public engagement and heritage objectives, and reduce risk to the collection. No decision has been taken about future Archives’ accommodation, but we do need to improve how we protect and manage the collection. We are also introducing (through a Transforming Archive Services project) a new web interface to the Archives catalogue, a range of new online services for users, and a barcode tracking system, which together will transform how we manage and monitor use of the collection; it will enable the us to implement more efficient management and retrieval, deliver customer service improvements, and collect detailed management information about collection usage which will be required to inform future decisions about collection care, digitisation priorities and future storage options.
As someone with some proven conservation skills or high-quality practical and creative hands-on experience working on arts and crafts based materials, you will provide key support to a new Pack & Track Project, which will improve the packaging and storage of the collection of 4 million unique, valuable, and sometimes fragile historic records in the Victoria Tower of the Palace of Westminster, barcode it, and enhance the catalogue.
You will work within project plan timescales and with archivists and collection care staff to ensure our records are adequately packaged. The work will include documenting, cleaning, and some in-situ conservation stabilisation, wrapping, measuring and making boxes/packages, labelling, and measuring expansion requirements. It will also involve barcoding our collections for the first time, working intensively with CALM and a newly- procured bar coding product, to enable more automated management of storage and records production.
For an informal chat, please contact Catherine Hardman or Lara Artemis on +44(0)20 7219 3074 or at archives [at] parliament.uk.