The Houses of Parliament are currently seeking to recruit two Cataloguers for the Archives Accommodation Programme Pack & Track Project

Salary: £22,150
Location: London
Position type: This post is fixed term for 24 months, with the possibility of extension, available from 1st January 2018.
Benefits include: membership of a pension scheme, six weeks annual holiday entitlement and assistance for childcare
Closing Date:  Tuesday 24th October 2017
Interviews will be held on Thursday 9th November 2017
 
Parliamentary Records are at the heart of our democracy. They have embodied our liberties, rights and responsibilities for over five hundred years. The Parliamentary Archives helps Parliament work more efficiently and openly, enabling it to make its decisions and act as effectively as possible. And we want to inspire everyone with the compelling story of Parliament, people, and communities’ right up to the present day.
 
The Archives is a shared service of both Houses of Parliament, based in the House of Lords but jointly funded by the House of Lords and House of Commons. It provides innovative and expert information management, preservation, access and outreach services enabling anyone in the world to use Parliament’s records, both now and in the future. It holds over 8km of physical records dating back to 1497 and its digital repository is now operational and growing rapidly. Its archive repository is largely inside the Victoria Tower, and it has offices, studios, a public search-room and other facilities adjacent to it in the main body of the Palace south return.
 

Since 2014 the Archives Accommodation Programme (AAP) has been considering options to improve the Archives’ accommodation, to support both Houses’ 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.

 

The Parliamentary Archives is 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.

The Pack & Track Project is therefore needed to improve the packaging and storage of the collection, and to barcode it. This will enable the Archives 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.

 

Reporting to the Pack & Track Project Manager, these posts are an exciting opportunity to participate in an Archives packing, barcoding and storage programme. They will provide key support to the Pack & Track Project, working within project plan timescales and with archivists and collection care staff to ensure records are adequately packaged, identifiable and trackable and that catalogue records, their references, titles/descriptions and locations match the details on the packaging and containers.

 

The work will involve records appraisal, cataloguing and 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. The posts involve computer work, extensive manual handling, use of ladders and work in the Victoria Tower (up to the 12th floor).

 

This is an excellent opportunity for individuals wishing work in archives at a paraprofessional level before, or while, undertaking professional training in archives or records management. Financial support (to a limit of 80%) will be offered to those enrolled, or seeking to enrol on an agreed postgraduate Archives or related Information Management distance learning programme, on the condition that the successful candidate remains in post until the end of the contract.

 

For further details and an application form please visit our vacancy website (https://houseoflordsjobs.engageats.co.uk/LoginV2.aspx) or email the Human Resources Office at [log in to unmask]

If you wish to find out more about the role, please contact Jennie Lynch or Catherine Hardman on 020 7219 3074

The House of Lords is committed to Equal Opportunities

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