Contractual hours
36
Basis
Full time
Job category/type
Cataloguing & Metadata
Date posted
20/08/2025
Job reference
R00001016
Location: St Pancras
Contract: Fixed Term for 6 months
Hours: Full time (36 hours)
Grade: C
Salary: £28,119 per annum
About the role
A vacancy has arisen for a music manuscripts and archives cataloguer in the Music Collections team at St. Pancras. The post holder will join a small team of curators responsible for printed and manuscript music materials at the British Library and will principally be cataloguing the archive of the music antiquarian firm, Otto Haas (in particular focusing on the period to 1955). The archive contains a wealth of information about the trade in music manuscripts and printed scores across Europe around the turn of the 20th century, through correspondence, financial records and annotated catalogues.
The role has been created as part of the British Library’s Unlocking Hidden Collections initiative, which aims to document, make available and raise the profile of British Library collections which cannot currently be discovered via the Library’s online catalogues. Tasks will include sorting, appraising and describing materials to professional national and international cataloguing standards, as well as assessing conservation needs, potential data protection issues and long-term preservation solutions to housing material. The role will also involve raising awareness of the material being catalogued, through blog posts, social media and potentially other activities.
The post holder will have a professional archive qualification or substantial equivalent experience in a library or archive environment, with knowledge of and an ability to read content in German. They will have an understanding of the preservation needs of modern archives and be able to work independently with an attention to detail. They will also be able to work successfully in a team environment and have good written and oral communication skills.
They will work with the BL's important music collections, with the opportunity to contribute to the music outreach and events programme.
About us
We are the national library of the UK and we are here for everyone. Our shelves hold over 170 million items – a living collection that gets bigger every day. Although our roots extend back centuries, we aim to collect everything published in the UK today, tomorrow and far into the future. Our trusted experts care for this collection and open it up for everyone to spark new discoveries, ideas and to help people do incredible things.
What we can offer you
- A competitive salary.
- A fantastic pension scheme with minimum employer contributions of 28.97% (this may be higher dependent on grade).
- Flexible working hours, with the ability to take up to 5 days flexi leave in a 3-month period.
- 25 days holiday.
- Full details of employee benefits can be found on our Careers: Benefits
Closing date: 31 August 2025
Prospective interview date: 12 September 2025
We are unable to provide sponsorship under the UK Skilled Worker visa for this role.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse candidates and disabled candidates. We would like to increase the representation of these groups within The British Library to ensure our workforce is as diverse as the public that we serve. Creating an inclusive workplace is the core of our business and a way to engage the diversity of thought that is essential to achieve our aims.