Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic and rare opportunity for you to become our Head of Archive & Library.

Historic England’s Archive and Library is the nation’s archive of England’s historic environment. It is a national collection with nearly 15 million items, mostly photography and documents. It is an accredited Archive and a recognised place of deposit. The collection continues to grow for now, and for future.

The Archive has an important role in telling the story of England; its shared memories, lived histories and diverse cultural identities. We conserve, save and safeguard, as well as share, collect and generate income.

As Head of Archive & Library, you will lead and manage a specialist team. You will be responsible for shaping the way we collect, manage, conserve and make available archive assets in line with Historic England’s strategic objectives and priorities. You will ensure that we share our collections - both physical and digital - in accessible, inspiring and engaging ways and that our collections are increasingly inclusive and representative. You will be responsible for development of the growing archive of born digital material, working with the Head of Digital Engagement to develop an integrated ecosystem that ensures our collections are held in the most cost-effective way and accessible to the widest possible audience.

As an entrepreneurial leader, you will identify and capitalise on opportunities to generate income from our collections (e.g., philanthropy, partnerships, research, licensing etc) while ensuring free and open access for our audiences wherever possible.

What you will be doing

1. To lead the Archive and Library strategy, which currently runs to 2025; focused on being more open, more digital and more engaging.

2. To develop and lead the Archive and Library strategy refresh from 2025, delivering results to achieve an archive fit for the future.

3. To work with the Head of Digital Engagement to deliver an integrated digital asset management strategy for our archive collections, connected with our corporate Digital Strategy.

4. To effectively lead, manage and motivate the Archive and Library teams, role modelling the HE behaviours, and developing the team culture and skills required to deliver the future strategic approach.

5. To be an active member of the Public Engagement leadership team, including delivering on our strategic pillars of Active Participation and Connected Communities.  

6. To participate in national, group and cross-group projects which support corporate priorities, ensuring the Archive is integrated as part of the Public Engagement Group.

7. To be an ambassador for the Archive and Library, cultivating relevant networks and engaging with internal and external stakeholders, partners and peer organisations, so that HE has a strong external profile and takes part in appropriate partnerships and projects.

8. To ensure the Archive team has the expertise to provide advice and guidance on collections and access to external users and colleagues across HE, ensuring use of archive material is efficient and easy.

9. To ensure the Archive and Library have the appropriate policies, procedures, storage requirements, technical skills and knowledge required to effectively manage the collection and our data, in line with best practice and corporate policies.

10. To be responsible for delivering and developing an integrated digital ecosystem for the Archive, including digital curation, rights management, retrievability, preservation and delivery.

11. To ensure excellent customer service, effective and easy customer journeys across all contact points with the Archive and Library to develop on-going participation with our collections and engagement with HE.

12. Work with colleagues to develop HE’s online presence, including archive content, so that engaging content is easy to discover and use.

13. Manage resources within budget and achieve continuous improvement in productivity.

14. Work in partnership with colleagues across the organisation to identify and develop external funding opportunities (e.g. partnerships, philanthropy, research, licensing etc) so that more of the archive collections can be preserved and made available.

15. Ensure effective delivery of our Shared Services with English Heritage Trust.

16. Be fully versed and apply best practice and relevant standards from the archive sector and peer organisations to our work, to ensure that Historic England achieves and exceeds industry recognised standards

17. Apply the Historic England Public Value Framework to achieve, measure and demonstrate maximum impact

18. Effectively measure, monitor and report on the Archive and Library’s performance

19. As a manager, ensure our legal obligations and the expectations set out in our policies are met, including health & safety, equality & diversity, finance, procurement, information security and managing people.

20. Be an exemplar for the Historic England values and behaviours

21. Where necessary, working flexibly to cover strategic issues in response to changing national organisational and group priorities

What we are looking for

1. An archive qualification and/or extensive experience of working with archives or collections

2. Experience of leading multi-disciplinary teams, including technical and specialist teams, in a relevant context or discipline

3. Ability to lead and develop a professional service at a strategic level, ensuring alignment with corporate priorities

4. Project and change management experience

5. Experience of increasing engagement and diversifying audience reach

6. Entrepreneurial mindset

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 26% contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at ResourcingTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

 Provisional virtual interview dates: Stage One- Wednesday 20th September 2023 in Swindon - face to face. For successful candidates at Stage One, Stage Two - Wednesday 27th September 2023.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Please click the following link for the full Job Description

https://historicengland.org.uk/content/job-descriptions-hr/head-of-archive-and-library/