A group of volunteers from our Hands-On History event in 2019.
Why volunteer?
Volunteers in Special Collections & Archives make valuable contributions to our service, helping us to improve the long-term preservation, discoverability and accessibility of our collections. This may be through collection care work such as repackaging and cleaning material, listing uncatalogued materials, or creating finding aids.
Where does volunteering take place?
This work may be carried out in person on the Canterbury campus in the Special Collections and Archives Reading Room, or remotely using online tools.
What opportunities do you offer?
Special Collections and Archives offers a number of volunteering opportunities, including:
- Short-term intensive placements for University of Kent students seeking an internship in a professional service environment.
- Longer-term placements (initially termly, 12 weeks, but can be ongoing) for those seeking experience within an archive, library or heritage environment, with the intention of applying for a recognised course in archives and records management, or librarianship leading to a professional qualification.
- Long-term placements for individuals (including retired University of Kent staff members) interested in archive, library or heritage work.
If you would like to explore current opportunities to volunteer please get in touch.
Three of our volunteers (L-R: Stefana, Christian and Reese) working on material in our Reading Room.