'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.

Opening up the historic Shakespeare collections is a core objective of the

'Everything to Everybody' project. Digitising a range of items from the collection and making them available through digital exhibitions, online galleries and a new web-based catalogue will be central to the success of Everything 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.

Making a wide range of items from the Birmingham Shakespeare Library available online is central to the ‘Everything to Everybody’ project.

The Digital Technician will be responsible for digitising items such as photographs, playbills, illustrations and historic texts. S/he will help ensure that all digitised items are accompanied by accurate and appropriate metadata, and that the newly digitised assets can be widely accessed and used.

A pool of volunteers will be dedicated to working with the Digital Technician to enable greater online access to the collection. The role will therefore include the day-to-day support and supervision of volunteers, student researchers, and other members of staff involved with the project.

The Digital Technician will be required to support and encourage the use of all aspects of digitisation (digital and audio capture, video production, photography, etc.) by staff and project collaborators to improve access to and conservation of the Library of Birmingham’s Shakespeare and George Dawson collections.

Specific duties will include:

• Working with other project staff to develop processes for managing the production of digital assets and related metadata for the ‘Everything to Everybody’ project.

• Using digitisation equipment at the Library of Birmingham to create, collate and edit new digital content for all online channels such as web and social media.

• Ensuring that digital content and related metadata is of appropriate quality and produced within agreed timescales.

• Supporting the project’s Community Engagement and Volunteers Officer with the development and implementation of volunteer roles and processes.

• Training and supervising relevant project staff, volunteers, student researchers and others who assist with the creation of digital resources from the Everything to Everybody project.

• Reporting on content creation activity for the Everything to Everybody project including the maintenance of accurate records of all material digitised for the project.

Applicants need to be able to demonstrate:

Experience in the creation and management of digital images using scanning equipment and proprietary software e.g. Photoshop.

Experience of dealing with archival or similar resources and photographic collections.

Experience of working with teams of people.

Practical understanding of digitisation workflows, including quality control- ideally in a heritage setting.

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

Experience of supervising, and motivating, volunteers.

Experience of managing, and motivating, people.

Proven track record of delivering digitisation or similar training and support in a professional or educational setting.

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

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

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, administrative and management tasks

Ability to upload content to webpages, blogs and social media channels

Ability to train and motivate volunteers and other project team members

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

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.