Positions at Oxford

Assistant Conservation Technicians
Oxford University Library Services

Technical Staff Grade C: UKP14,372 - UKP16,053 p.a.
Fixed term contract, two years in the first instance

The Conservation and Collection Care department of Oxford University
Library Services is seeking to recruit eight Assistant Conservation
Technicians. The posts are designed as training opportunities and
aimed at enthusiastic individuals interested in gaining an
introduction to a major library conservation service.

OULS is one of the world's largest research library systems, with 40
sites and collections totalling over 23 million books, periodicals,
maps and manuscripts, and incorporates the Bodleian Library, one of
the UK's legal deposit libraries holding unparalleled collections of
world heritage collected over the last 400 hundred years.  The
Conservation and Collection Care department comprises around 50
conservators and technicians working in teams to deliver a wide
range of conservation operations, from moving and protecting
collections in storage, to the simple repair of damaged books from
reading rooms and specialist treatment for priceless manuscripts.

The Assistant Conservation Technicians operate in small teams and
work across a range of projects under the guidance and supervision
of professional conservators and senior technicians.  These two year
posts will incorporate an eighteen month work-based learning
programme, during which time the post holders will gain insight and
develop skills in cleaning, packaging and safe movement of items and
whole collections, basic testing of materials and data gathering,
and manufacture of archival quality packages.  The Assistant
Technicians will move between operations in rotation, learning each
area of discipline and having their learning planned, monitored and
assessed. This is a unique opportunity to handle and become familiar
with a wide range of books old and new and to understand the
challenges in their preservation.

Conservation work at this level can be routine and involves lifting
and carrying on a regular basis, but it is always rewarding and
these posts offer the chance to see conservation at first hand in
preparation for future training and specialisation.

If you are interested in a career in conservation and would like to
take the first steps, further details and applications forms are
available from <URL:http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/fp/> or from the

    OULS Personnel Section
    Oxford University Library Services
    Osney One Building
    Osney Mead, Oxford OX1 3BG
    +44 1865) 277171
    Fax: +44 1865 202948
    personnel<-a t->ouls< . >ox< . >ac< . >uk.

Closing date for completed application forms is Friday 2 December
2005.  Please quote our ref. BL5104.

Chris Woods
Head of Conservation and Collection Care
Oxford University Library Services
Bodleian Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG
+44 1865 277075
Fax: +44 1865 277182

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:26
                Distributed: Saturday, November 19, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-19-26-041
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