Archives Volunteer – London Typographical Designers Archive (Remote Volunteering)

Archives Volunteer – London Typographical Designers Archive

 

Location: Virtual volunteering for University Museums and Special Collections Service

 

Why we want you 

Special Collections are currently organising a volunteer driven project that aims to provide easier access to the London Typographical Designers Archive. The firm was established in 1945 by Beric Young, an artist; Oliver Burridge, a master printer, and Leon French and William Morgan, both typographers.

They had all worked together in the Ministry of Information. Clients of the firm include: John Laing, Marconi, Bowater, British Oxygen, Mobil Oil and Cliffords Dairies. Oliver Burridge left the firm and George Thompson joined the firm in 1948.  Ken Sewell joined in 1965 and the firm now trades under the name LTD Design Consultants.

What you will be doing

We hold a handwritten list of the contents of the archive which we would like to be typed into an Excel spreadsheet. Each job the firm undertook has a file and this contains a job sheet, examples of artwork, proofs, estimates and copies of invoices.   

You will be given an electronic scan of the list. The list contains the job number, the client, the nature of the work undertaken and the date. The Excel sheet you help us complete will then be imported into our collections database to ensure future researchers have greater access to the collection.

Please be aware that when working on uncatalogued items you may discover some harmful content that you should highlight to the Project Supervisor. An example is an outdated racial term that was commonly used decades ago that would cause offence to modern researchers. As a result of uncovering this content, a ‘harmful content warning’ would then be placed on the online catalogue to warn researchers.

This role will suit you if you are:

• Able to work both independently, but also enjoy being part of a team

• Interested in design history

 • Enthusiastic, proactive and curious

 • Able to type accurately and work methodically

What you will gain in return

• This project will help you discover more about twentieth century typographical design 

• Develop your typing skills and work accurately to improve the level of detail available in our collections database, which will greatly assist future researchers

• Gain some new skills for your CV

Who does the role report to?

Caroline Gould, Principal Archivist, based at Special Collections c.l.gould@reading.ac.uk

How much time will it take up?

We suggest a few hours a week, and you will form part of a team of volunteers who will help us list the collection of nearly 4000 job files.

To apply

Please complete your volunteer registration form on our volunteering platform Better Impact by Tuesday 23 July at 9am.

Please click on this link to the volunteering platform http://bttr.im/w2yev

Please ensure you tick ‘Archive Volunteer – London Typographical Designers project’ in your ‘Interests’ section under My Profile, when registering.

When you are happy with your application, please don’t forget to click SUBMIT – otherwise we will never receive your form! 

Existing volunteers/ applicants on the waiting list

If you have already registered to volunteer with Museums Partnership Reading, please log in to the volunteering platform, click on My Profile, select the ‘Interests’ section, and ensure you tick the box next to Archive Volunteer – London Typographical Designers project’ by Tuesday 23 July at 9am.  You may want to update your ‘Additional info’ fields to reflect any experience and skills you have gained since you initially applied or joined the volunteering team.

Matching to the Role

We are fortunate to have perennial interest from prospective volunteers hoping to volunteer with our archives, so initially we will select eight volunteers to help in our first cohort.

To help us select our first cohort, if from your application we can see you look a good match for the roles, we will let you know by Wednesday 24 July if we will be inviting you to join the first cohort.

You would also be invited to a Welcome briefing, which will take place online on Friday 26 July at 10:30am (this will be recorded if you are unable to attend), where you will be given more detailed guidance.