Borough Archivist

This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

The Council is focused on becoming a borough which celebrates culture, heritage, and diversity. The heritage of the borough is central to the future development of the borough and the Borough Archivist needs to lead on ensuring the heritage narrative is present and influences the place making plans in Kingston. Kingston History Centre is an accredited archive service, free and open to all. 

What the job requires - 

The Borough Archivist will: 

• Support the delivery of a vibrant, dynamic Culture & Heritage Service that has the preservation and interpretation of Kingston’s heritage and collections at its heart and ensure that heritage is present in placemaking discussions through building links with key stakeholders including colleagues in Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development.
• Lead the National Archives Archive Service re-accreditation process including preparation of documentation required maintaining this status, and ensuring that policies and procedures are embedded and updated.
• Work with the Outreach and Engagement Manager: Heritage and other colleagues across Culture & Heritage to engage with diverse audiences to add to the collection and make the service relevant to the community.
• Research the collection to answer public enquiries and to develop interpretation suchas display texts, online texts, and talks.
• Develop and manage the collection giving access wherever possible, including onsite and offsite records, by identifying records of value and ensuring its security conservation and preservation.
• Utilise digital systems including CALM and a digital preservation tool to maintain and give access to records.
• Work with the Heritage Supervisor to ensure the day-to-day operational running of the Heritage sites, planning the work of the Heritage Officer, Saturday Heritage Assistants and volunteers, ensuring that policies and procedures are followed, and a good quality training programme is in place.

The Council is focused on becoming a borough which celebrates culture, heritage and diversity with vibrant community events for local people, businesses and visitors to enjoy. It has been acknowledged that culture is critical to health and wellbeing, the local economy and regeneration projects.

Kingston Heritage Service is continually transforming. We are about to launch a digital preservation system in order to develop a digital archive. The History Centre and Kingston Museum are accredited services, free and open to all.

You will be part of the Culture & Heritage service which brings together libraries, heritage, arts, music and adult education with a shared vision to place the vibrant and rich culture and heritage of the Borough at the centre of its life. 

We believe that everybody deserves to have access to a rich cultural life and that this will empower communities to collaborate together and be happier, healthier and more skilled.

Our transformation programme, Future Culture & Heritage, will bring together the specialist skills from across the team areas to develop an exciting programme which focuses on outreach into the communities to make the borough a destination place for culture and heritage. Working collaboratively with partners we wish to help engage, enable and empower our communities. 

We are always looking at new ways of working, new technologies to help support our customers and deliver an excellent service.During Covid-19 we built on our digital offer which goes from strength to strength and we have a Heritage website

To be successful in the role of Borough Archivist you will be able to demonstrate the following essential key points:

• A good understanding of best practice in the heritage sector, archives and records management, and national developments and research resources relating to archives.
• Experience of the National Archives Archive Service Accreditation process.
• Knowledge of legislation for archives and records management including Freedom of Information; data protection and copyright legislation.
• An excellent approach to customer service and experience of working in a public environment.
• Agility and Adaptability in mindset and ways of working with the ability to problem solve and use your initiative.
• Good IT skills and experience of cataloguing to international cataloguing standards (such as ISAD(G)) and familiarity with CALM and experience in digital preservation.
• Excellent organisation skills, innovation and creativity.
• Excellent communication skills to actively engage in positive cross organisational communication.
• The ability to work successfully with key stakeholders within and outside of the Council.
• A commitment to your own personal development to meet the changing demands of the role.

Minimum / essential requirements - 

• A postgraduate qualification in Archives and Records Management, or equivalent.
• Post qualification experience in the management of records and archives.
• Ability to work under pressure and react quickly to situations being the main point of contact. 

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.   

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.