Digitisation Curator - New Acquisitions

We are seeking to appoint an individual as the Digitisation Curator for New Acquisitions. Reporting to the Digital Collections New Acquisitions Manager, the postholder will use their in-depth knowledge of herbarium collections and curation procedures to help develop the new workflow for the digitisation of incoming material. This role will be essential in ensuring procedures meet the curatorial statutory obligations and can be implemented smoothly into day-to-day curatorial activities by highlighting areas where workflows could be problematic, suggesting and testing improvements.

RBG Kew are currently recruiting staff to work on an exciting and unique project to digitise Kew’s 8.5 million plant and fungal specimens and create a complete catalogue of our internationally significant collections, making specimen records and images freely available online and accessible to researchers across the globe.

The outcome of this project will provide a unique, world-leading resource making accessible data from more than 260 years of scientific exploration, placing them at the centre of efforts to combat urgent global challenges such as habitat degradation, climate change and human health.

In addition, RBG Kew are recruiting staff to support the implementation of a new collections management system to ensure efficient and effective integrated management of the Science and Living Collections and the data describing them.

The Integrated Collections Management System will allow more efficient tracking of the use of specimens to meet legislative requirements concerning access to genetic resources and benefit sharing, including the Nagoya Protocol of the Convention on Biological Diversity and plant health legislation.

Essential skills and experience required for this role include experience of curatorial activities, ideally in an herbarium setting; knowledge of taxonomic names and previous experience adjusting protocols and workflows. This post will require strong communication skills, both written and oral, as well as an understanding of data management and manipulation.