Fixed Term Contract until 26/11/2022

14.6 hours per week

'Everything to Everybody' is a National Lottery funded partnership project between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council.

Based at the Library of Birmingham, the project will work with community partners and volunteers across the city to help modernise the historic Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library.

In 1868, Birmingham was the first place in the world to open a Shakespeare Library for everybody irrespective of education, wealth or background. The 'Everything to Everybody' project will take those founding principles and translate them for the contemporary 21st century city.  

Working with local artists, community groups, heritage organisations, schools, students, volunteers and cultural venues throughout Birmingham, the project will open up the Shakespeare Library to new audiences locally, nationally and internationally. It will, in particular, actively engage with communities with no prior knowledge of the Shakespeare Library.

'Everything to Everybody' will produce new online resources, books, exhibitions, community productions, family days at the library, publications, citizen research, and will work closely with schools and educators. Coinciding with the Commonwealth Games, 'Everything to Everybody' will culminate in 2022 with a festival celebrating Birmingham's role in initiating and promoting inclusive culture for all.

The Birmingham Shakespeare Library catalogue is currently only available as a seven volume printed document. The 'Everything to Everybody' project will digitise the Shakespeare catalogue and make it available online to everybody.

The Library of Birmingham was opened in 2013. It is the largest public library in the UK and receives over a million visits each year. Birmingham is a super-diverse city and the library aims to offer a comprehensive range of relevant services to everyone within the city and beyond.

The ‘Everything to Everybody’ project Archivist will coordinate all archive-related activity for the project. They will have specific responsibility for digitising the Shakespeare Library catalogue and making it publicly available using the Calm archival cataloguing system.

The development of a new digital catalogue is one of the core aims of the Everything to Everybody project and will make the collections more readily available to Birmingham citizens, project partners and other stakeholders.

The Archivist will primarily work with the Shakespeare Collection and George Dawson Collection, but should also draw connections to other collections at the Library of Birmingham.

The role includes day-to-day supervision of volunteers, student researchers, and other members of staff involved with the project.

Specific duties will include:

Coordinating the development of a new online Birmingham Shakespeare Library catalogue including:

 • Appraising the existing printed catalogue.

 • Verifying previously digitised records.

 • Digitising parts of the printed catalogue.

 • Importing MARC records into the Calm archive cataloguing system.

 • Accessioning and cataloguing new collection material.

 • Incorporating new community-generated text into catalogue entries.

 • Connecting the Shakespeare and George Dawson collections.

 • Optimising the use of both the Calm (archive) and Spydus (book) cataloguing systems.

 • Connecting catalogue entries to digitised assets online.

Improving access to Shakespeare and George Dawson collections within the Library of Birmingham building through producing and facilitating the creation of information and resources for websites, catalogues, exhibitions, learning packages, social media, blogs and other publications.

Supporting educational and promotional activities, including the preparation of exhibitions, the production of online resources, and the delivery of talks.

Facilitating, guiding and supervising research of the collections undertaken by volunteers, student researchers, project team members, project partners, members of the public and other staff in the public search room and other library locations.

Participating in project management and decision-making at a policy level, and in the day-to-day administration of the Shakespeare-related archive and special collections.

Applicants need to be able to demonstrate:

Previous responsibilities within a library, archive or similar collections service with experience of cataloguing and sorting.

Experience of preserving and cataloguing archival and/or special collections and making them available, as appropriate, to the public.

Experience of working with digital records and catalogues, such as MARC records and Axiell Calm.

Familiar with supervising the operation of systems to ensure security and safety of archives

Experience of supervising members of staff and/or volunteers.

Experience of working with teams of people

It would be desirable if they are also able to demonstrate:

Experience of managing and training people (including volunteers).

Experience of creating policy documents, such as a Collection Development Policy

Applicants should be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Ability to organise tasks, prioritise workloads, and meet required deadlines.

Ability to foster relationships with others which encourage collaborative working and knowledge sharing.

Confident to make decisions using own judgement which enable the ‘Everything to Everybody’ project to progress.

Ability to operate flexibly understanding the requirement to change priorities according to the needs of the project.

An understanding of the principles of conservation and the handling of historic library resources.

Effective verbal and written communication skills

Ability to work with a wide range of people including other heritage and learning providers, community representatives, business and professional organisations, academic specialists and consultants.

Ability to develop an understanding and knowledge of archival and library sources, policies and practices and communicate this knowledge and understanding to student researchers, volunteers and others.

Ability to work on your own initiative, and as part of a team.

Ability to use ICT systems for the purposes of communication, information retrieval, collections cataloguing, administrative and management tasks

The successful applicant should be able and willing to undertake any training deemed appropriate to the post.

Applicants should have a recognised archive qualification or equivalent, or the ability to demonstrate equivalent competency levels attained through experience.

For informal queries regarding this role, please contact:

Tom Epps

Cultural Partnerships Manager

0121 303 6662

tom.epps@birmingham.gov.uk

Right to work in the UK documentation will be fully checked for all applicants. All non UK and non EU applicants are required to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship from Birmingham City Council and must be approved by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) before any employment offer can be confirmed.