Archivist & Records Manager

Job Title: Archivist & Records Manager
Contract type: Permanent
Department: Library
Reports to: Librarian

Balliol College is one of the largest and longest established colleges in the University of Oxford. It exists to advance education at both undergraduate and graduate levels, to facilitate and to encourage scholarship and research at the very highest levels, and to promote excellence in learning.

Balliol College was founded in 1263 and is now one of the larger Oxford colleges with around 400 undergraduates in residence at any one time, and with about the same number of graduate students based at the graduate centre at Holywell Manor.

The Library supports the College’s charitable objects – of teaching, learning, and research – by offering 24-hour access to its main collection of some 80,000 items on the Broad Street site, facilitating undergraduate and postgraduate study; and also by collecting, preserving, and promoting the College’s intellectual heritage in its historic collections, which are housed in the College’s two library sites and also online.

Arguably the oldest of all the Oxford colleges, Balliol has one of the longest continuous histories of any educational institution in the English-speaking world. Its Archives contain well over 10,000 items, covering all aspects of the College’s history from its earliest years to the present: College governance, finance, and community are represented in items that range from early statutes and medieval property deeds to minutes and photographs of College societies. The Archives are a much-used resource for historians and researchers, as well as fulfilling an important function as the College institutional memory. An integral part of Balliol’s historic collections, they are housed in an award- winning, specially designed Historic Collections Centre, which the College created within the shell of St Cross Church, opened in 2011.

In addition, Balliol’s special collections include 400 early manuscripts, including among their highlights a part of the Domesday Book (1160-70), Richard Hill’s memorandum book, the unique source of many English carols, and the library of William Gray, Bishop of Ely, which has been called ‘by far the finest, as well as the largest, private collection to survive in England from the Middle Ages’. There are many collections of modern personal papers, with notable strengths in nineteenth and twentieth-century politics and education, including T.H. Green, Benjamin Jowett, and Harold Nicolson; and an extensive holding of literary manuscripts including important collections of material by Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Arthur Hugh Clough, Graham Greene, among many others. The College also cares for some 20,000 early printed books, and nineteenth and twentieth-century special printed collections, with particular strengths in English literature, science, theology, law, and Indian history.

Balliol is a constituent college of the University of Oxford and employs some 70 fellows, 40 lecturers and about 120 support staff. Dame Helen Ghosh is its current Master.

Purpose of the post

Balliol College is seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, self-motivated professional Archivist and Records Manager to join the Library team, responsible for the College’s information portfolio.
It is envisaged that, once a Records Management Strategy has been established, duties will be split roughly 60:40 between the Archives/Library and the Record Manager aspects of the post.

This is a wonderful opportunity to help one of the oldest colleges in the University meet the challenges of records management and archiving in the twenty-first century, developing strategy and working closely with the rest of the Library team to promote access to the College’s historic collections.

Hours of work: The normal hours of work are 9.00 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Friday to give a total of 37.5 hours per week. However, the ability to work evenings and weekends given reasonable notice is expected.

Salary: Balliol College pay scale grade 7 (£35,308-£43,155)

Benefits: Pension Scheme – contributions being made by the post holder and by the College, a two-course hot meal when the College kitchens are open and travel pass schemes.

Holidays: The holiday year begins on 1 January. You will receive a paid entitlement of 30 working days during the complete holiday year with additional days for long service; 5 days holiday must be taken during the Christmas closed period.

Probationary period: 1 year

Notice period: 3 months.

Site: The postholder will be expected to work flexibly at both the St Cross site (the College’s Historic Collections Centre) and at the Library at the College’s main Broad Street site.

Principal responsibilities:

Records Management

• Work with key office holders across College to implement the College’s Records Management Strategy, including the development of local records management policies and retention schedules in accordance with national guidance and strategies
• Provide high quality and timely advice and guidance on all aspects of records management to departments across the College and advise College staff regarding the legal and ethical implications of records management practice at the College.
• Undertake surveys of current and non-current records held in all formats and produce reports for the record holders detailing findings and expert recommendations.
• Maintain expert knowledge of legislation and assist senior managers and record holders on matters relating to compliance with Copyright, Data Protection and Freedom of Information.
• To undertake a lead role with regard to digital records management in College by functioning as Balliol’s Unit Administrator on the University’s DigiSafe project to provide a structured repository for these, representing the entire College, and co-ordinating its response to developments in this initiative, and the compliance of Balliol’s digital records with the required standards.
• Manage the appropriate transfer of College records, both physical and digital, to the College Archives in accordance with the above.
• Establish procedures that allow for the secure disposal of information.
• Liaise with the College’s IT Department to ensure new systems meet agreed records management requirements.
• To play a key role in developing an appropriate storage facility for the College’s physical semi-current records, and its compliance with required environmental and security standards.

Other Responsibilities

• To play a key role in managing the St Cross building which houses the Historic Collections Centre.
• To be a key member of the Library team, helping ensure that the Broad Street Library and the St Cross site function as an integrated service by regular liaison and co-ordination with other Library staff; and by dividing working time between the two sites.
• Work with the Librarian to oversee the effective operation of the reading room at St Cross, ensure that reading room rules are observed and that the facilities function smoothly, including maintaining an appropriate system of invigilation and prompt handling of requests to consult material;
• Assist with applications to funding bodies for the cataloguing, conservation and promotion of the collections;
• Represent the Library at meetings of other college and university libraries and archives, professional bodies and the like regarding shared and best practice in the fields of archives and records management, and to report back to the Librarian and to the Library Committee;
• To play a key role as Secretary of the Arts and Chattels Committee, attending termly meetings, answering enquiries regarding the College’s art collection (as distinct from work of art within the archives), organising loans to other institutions, working with the Chair to assess potential acquisitions, develop plans for auditing and systematic recording of art collections, and advise on preservation and other implications of display.
• Take on any other duties as reasonably requested by the Librarian.

The Library is strongly committed to the career development of its staff, and the College is keen to offer any training that might be required in the curating of specialist and historic material or in any other aspects of the post.

Requirements

Essential

• A postgraduate qualification in Archives and Records Management recognised by the Archives and Records Association, or another relevant vocational postgraduate qualification and substantial experience in an information environment.
• Experience of working with archives in an academic or other similar library environment.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills.
• Flexibility to work well across different sites.
• Excellent team-working skills and evidence of having worked successfully in a team.
• Accuracy and attention to detail.
• High level of information and computer literacy, including proficiency with catalogues, archives and records management systems, web editing, word processing, email and spreadsheets.
• Ability to solve problems and take a creative approach to work

Desirable

• Experience of any of the principal responsibilities of the post including working with born-digital or digitised materials
• Working knowledge of Latin
• Demonstrable training and/or experience of palaeography

Application procedure

How to apply

Please apply via portal and include at least two referees in your application. The closing date for applications will be 30th June 2023. Interviews are likely to be in the week beginning 17th July.

Interviews

Candidates will be expected to supply original documentation proving that they have the right to work in the United Kingdom (UK).