Churchill Archives Centre offers volunteer placements for those interested in a career in archives, records management or conservation.

Archives and records management volunteers

Churchill Archives Centre offers volunteer placements for those interested in a career in archives and/or records management. Placements are flexible and last one week or the equivalent in half- or full days spread over a longer period, up to five weeks.

Placements typically involve the following elements:

• an introduction to archival cataloguing
• a basic box listing or description task, probably on a new collection,
• answering some enquiries from researchers.
• shadowing the archivist or archives assistant on duty in the reading room and helping to fetch archive files for researchers,
• an introduction to records management,
• a basic records management task,
• an introduction to digital archives,
• an introduction to making copies of archives (reprographics), and
• a tour of the conservation workshop.

There may be the opportunity to assist with a group visit (e.g. preparing a small exhibition) depending on the timing of the placement.

Criteria for volunteers

• Volunteers must be aged 18 or over. We cannot offer work placements to sixth form volunteers.
• Volunteers must have:
  • a good standard of written English,
  • an interest in a career in archives and/or records management, and
  • enthusiasm to learn.

Placement timings and applications

Churchill Archive Centre offers two placements per year, one in the Easter vacation and the other in the Summer vacation.

To apply for one of the placements, please send a letter indicating why this opportunity is important to you to archives.volunteers@chu.cam.ac.uk and which placement (Easter, Summer or either) you’d be interested in. Letters should be received no less than one month before the placement you’re interested in (end of February and May respectively).

Placement expenses and benefits

We can offer a free lunch each day and travel expenses up to a maximum of £10 per day. Unfortunately we cannot offer accommodation.

Induction days

Churchill Archives Centre also offers one induction day per year. If you’re interested in archives and/or records management but our placements aren’t right for you for whatever reason, then this day may be for you instead.

The Centre’s archivists, archives assistants, and conservation team provide participants with a one-day, high-level introduction to archival cataloguing, records management, and conservation combined with opportunities to ask lots of questions. The content covered is essentially the same as that of a volunteer placement but without the practical element.

Please contact archives.volunteers@chu.cam.ac.uk for information on when the next induction day will be held and for further details.

Conservation volunteers

Placements for those interested in a career in conservation are flexible. Usually, they are dependent on the candidate being already on, or applying for, a conservation course.

Placements will involve the following elements:

• preservation packaging of collections containing archival materials, and
• making bespoke enclosures or simple boxes.
• Longer term placements may involve surface dry cleaning and simple paper repairs.

We can offer a free lunch each day and travel expenses up to a maximum of £10 per day. Unfortunately, we cannot offer accommodation, so volunteers must live within commuting distance of Cambridge.

We ask all potential conservation volunteers to come in for a brief tour of the Archives Centre, so they can see the working environment and discuss the placement further.

To find out more about conservation placements, please send an email marked for the attention of Sarah Lewery to archives.volunteers@chu.cam.ac.uk.