JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION
Job Title
Salary Band
Section/Team
Reporting to
Reporting to job holder
Archivist
Welcome and Visitors
Canon Chancellor
No employed staff
-
Date of issue
Small team of volunteers
2015
Overall Purpose of Post
To manage, preserve and develop the Cathedral’s Archive and Library for
current needs and those of future generations.
Health and Safety
It is a general duty of all Cathedral staff to ensure they are familiar with the
Health and Safety Policy and to adhere to it at all times.
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Responsibilities and
Accountabilities
Nature and Scope of Role
Archive Management
To manage the creation and
maintenance of the Cathedral
Archive.
This includes:
 managing the archive
accommodation and
developing proposals when
needed for relocation and
expansion
 Cataloguing the archive
collection
 Establishing means of access to
the Archive
 Ensuring ongoing management
of the Archive, including
access, accruals and
promulgating its use
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Library Management
To manage the Cathedral Library
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Preservation
To ensure that all Archive and
Library material held at the
Cathedral is properly preserved
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Development
To consolidate, maintain and
develop the Cathedral Archive and
Library and the catalogues
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This includes:
 Ensuring that books and other
material are appropriately and
securely stored and preserved
 Access arrangements are
established and communicated
 Dealing with enquiries for
access to the library
 Establishing a strategy for
disposals and acquisitions
This includes:
 giving advice on its storage in
secure and healthy conditions
 assessing on-going preservation
and conservation needs and
recommending actions
 providing professional advice
to the Canon in charge on all
aspects of preservation
including electronic
preservation
 arranging for books and
documents to be conserved or
bound as appropriate by
external conservators.
 advising on digitisation of core
collections to protect the
originals, whilst improving
access and security.
This includes:
 developing for the approval of
Chapter a strategy for increased
access to the Library resources
and for the display of important
parts of the collection
 creating an up-to-date archival
catalogue in electronic format
that can be searched by Dean &
Chapter colleagues
 negotiating with partner/s to
mount cathedral archives and
library catalogues on-line in a
sustainable manner
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Knowledge
To develop a strategy and
operation to promote awareness,
knowledge and understanding of
the library and archive and serve
the needs of enquirers and
researchers
 surveying cathedral departments
to determine scale of
uncatalogued archive collections
 working out programme for
cataloguing the archives to link
in with Isabel Syed’s catalogue
of the historic archive collection
held in the Cathedral library and
in Gloucestershire Archives.
 Preparing applications for
external funding for cataloguing,
conservation, digitisation and
learning and outreach projects
 developing records management
guidelines for the Cathedral to
ensure that appropriate material
is regularly added to the archive
to help future generations
understand how the Cathedral
worked in the early 21st century;
 to give talks and lead tours of
the Library
 acquiring new publications in
line with the collecting policy.
This includes:
 training and supervising
volunteers to manage the
archive, answer routine
enquiries and supervise
researchers
 responding to specialist or
complex enquiries
 advising on the provision of
facilities for public access to the
library and archive
 transferring items to and from
Gloucestershire Archives to
enable adequate supervision of
longer term research
 advising the Canon in charge
about learning and promotional
opportunities for display and
interpretation
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 undertaking research and
reports to support Cathedral
Projects, e.g. Fabric works,
Project Pilgrim bid
 contributing to major crossdepartmental projects, e.g.
Project Pilgrim, VEST group
 working as a team member and
taking responsibilities as
required
 assisting with Cathedral
publications
Inventory
This includes:
To manage the completion and
 Creation and management of a
maintenance of the Cathedral
programme for completing the
inventory (as required under the
inventory
Care of Cathedrals Measure).
 Working with volunteers, who
may have particular interests
or skills, in undertaking
aspects of the inventory task
 Presentation of the inventory
elements to the Cathedral’s
Fabric Committee and Fabric
Advisory Committee
Managing Volunteers
This includes:
To manage and foster a small team
 Identifying potential
of volunteers to support the work
volunteers
of the Archivist
 Training and supervision, and
foster a team spirit
 Establishing clear roles within
the Library and Archive.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Attributes
Essential
General
Be in sympathy with the aims
and ethos of the Cathedral as a
Christian organisation and have
an understanding of the function
of the Cathedral as a heritage
attraction
Educated to degree level
Archivist qualification
Experience of managing archival
collections
Qualifications
and Training
Experience
Knowledge,
Skills and
Abilities
Personal
Qualities
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Desirable