Collections Assistant - Migration

The Sedgwick Museum has a temporary vacancy for an enthusiastic person with some experience of collections management and/or collections migration to play a key role in the development of the Museum's new Collections Research Centre.

The Sedgwick Museum's collections comprise more than two million fossils, rocks and minerals representing 300 years of collecting. The Museum welcomes more than 150,000 public visitors a year and delivers popular public programmes and outreach. The Museum's priorities include reaching a larger and more diverse public audience, increasing and enhancing the support we provide to researchers and students, and taking a lead in the regional and national museums sector. The Museum is embedded within the Department of Earth Sciences , with 14 support staff (13.5 FTE; 13 permanent) and a team of volunteers. The collections team provide collections access for researchers, students and the public, as well as caring for and documenting the collections.

As part of the Museum's aspiration to create an international Collections Research Centre, the Museum is currently undertaking a major collections migration project, led by the Collections Manager and assisted by a small team of temporary project assistants, moving more than 140,000 drawers of petrological specimens from the Atlas Building at High Cross, Cambridge into a new purpose-built collections store, the Colin Forbes Building on Madingley Rise, adjacent to the Museum's existing Collections Store and conservation facility.

The Collections Assistant (Migration Project) will supervise the small team carrying out this relocation. The role will include documenting and packing specimens, transporting pallet loads of specimen drawers between buildings using a 3.5T box van with tail lift, and putting away drawers of rock specimens into the new racking. S/he will be responsible for ensuring that the collections are documented and moved into the new store according to the highest standards, to maximise their research value and accessibility in the short and long term. This role will support the Director and Collections Manager by developing workflows, rotas and protocols to carry out the migration efficiently, safely and effectively. They will manage migration data, ensure equipment is maintained, contribute to maintaining a presence at the Museum's remote stores, and contribute to public engagement, social media and other projects across the Museum

Applicants should have experience of working with museum collections, ideally in the context of a migration project and/or of working with geological material. They should be confident developing workflows and procedures as part of a team, and ideally will be familiar, or happy to be trained in with working at height, using ladders, MEWP, pallet trucks or powered pedestrian stacker trucks. They will have experience of working with and supporting teams, enabling individuals to contribute their best, as well as good communication and influencing skills. They should be confident to take responsibility and initiative where required, and be able to prioritise and comfortably adapt to changing circumstances and requirements.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 1 years in the first instance.