Archive Assistant

Department/Location: Department of Earth Sciences 

The Sedgwick Museum has a vacancy for an Archive Assistant to join the Museum team. This new role provides an exciting opportunity to work alongside the Museum Archivist, and contribute to the development and promotion of the Museum's archive as an international focus for collections research.  Duties include documentation, contributing to the care of the archives, assisting with collections enquiries, and enabling researchers to access and use the archives and promoting their use.  

The Sedgwick Museum's collections comprise more than two million fossils, rocks, minerals representing 300 years of collecting. The archive comprises over 2000 boxes of irreplaceable records from 17th century drawings of fossils to unique historic geological field notebooks, sketches, maps, and an extensive fieldwork photographic archive.   The archive includes papers charting the history and development of the Museum, the papers of Woodwardian professors including the field notebooks of Adam Sedgwick, the Sedgwick Club Archive and the Cambridge Svalbard Exploration Archive.  The Museum welcomes more than 90,000 public visitors a year and delivers popular public programmes and outreach. The Museum's priorities include supporting world-leading research, welcoming and inspiring our public visitors, supporting and enriching student learning and skills development, and working collaboratively with museums, universities and communities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. 

Applicants should have previous experience working with archives or within a heritage environment as an employee, user or volunteer.  Knowledge of cataloguing and collections care standards for archival collections would be advantageous, as would an interest in or knowledge of geology, geography, fieldwork and/or the history of science. They should have excellent attention to detail, communications and teamworking skills, IT skills including the ability to use and work with databases, and good planning and organisation skills.  The role would suit someone with an interest in a career in Archive Management or Heritage Environment.   

Limited funding: The funds for this post are available until 30 September 2029 in the first instance. 

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click on the apply button above.

For further information about the role, please see the Further Particulars. 

Informal enquiries can be directed to the Archivist, Sandra Freshney on sjm259@cam.ac.uk. 

Interview dates: We anticipate interviews will be carried out in person on Wednesday 23 July 2025 but can accommodate interviews by Zoom if necessary. 

Please quote reference LB45616 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy. 

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society. 

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

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