Volunteering

Volunteering at The London Archives

Volunteers have made an essential contribution to the work of The London Archives (TLA) over many years. Volunteers help us by undertaking additional work such as improving cataloguing descriptions, indexing records and assisting with conservation and packaging work. This work can open records up to researchers and improve the quality of our descriptions. Many volunteers do this just for pleasure, using their ingenuity and research skills in working with original and digital collections. However, we appreciate that volunteer experience can also be useful for those thinking of archives or the heritage sector as a potential career.

Volunteers here are given training relevant to their work and are supported by a supervisor. We have an annual celebration of the work of our volunteers and there are social opportunities among our volunteer community.

At present, our volunteering opportunities are limited to adults over 18 years of age. We are working on developing volunteer opportunities for younger people.

If you would like to keep up to date with new opportunities, please sign up to our mailing list.

Current opportunities

There are three ongoing volunteer projects managed by the Collections Knowledge and Engagement team at The London Archives – two of these are online projects, and one is based on site. We're only currently recruiting for the Switching the Lens project.

Switching the Lens

This is a remote project which volunteers can participate in from home, meaning you do not need to be based in London. Volunteers use our digitised collections on Ancestry to search for Londoners of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage between 1538-1837.

What do I need to participate?

• Access to internet and own laptop or tablet (access to Ancestry is provided)
• Experience of reading old handwriting is helpful but not essential
• Ability to work independently

What will get from it?

• A chance to develop your ability to read and interpret old documents and experience of using a large digital dataset
• An opportunity to help uncover marginalised London histories

Current projects (not currently recruiting)

London in Photographs

This is another remote project, though volunteers are welcome to attend in person on selected Fridays. Volunteers enhance the descriptions of digitised photographs from our collection of photographs taken by the London County Council in order to make them easier to search and more useful to researchers.

What do I need to participate?

• Interest in London and the built environment
• Access to internet and own laptop or tablet; experience of using Excel is helpful
• Ability to work independently and follow indexing guidelines

What will I get from it?

• Experience of working with large photographic archive
• Chance to develop research skills

A Place in the Sun

This long-running project aims to index fire insurance policies from the Sun Fire Insurance policy registers; this is an important source for family and local historians across the UK.

What do I need to participate?

You will need to be able to regularly visit us onsite during our opening hours and be prepared to commit to a programme of training delivered by one of our existing volunteers

A good level of computer competency and some experience of using archives and reading old handwriting is essential.

What will I get from it?

• Experience of indexing records and reading old handwriting
• A chance to work with records that are enormously popular with our readers

If you would like to find out more about any of the projects or sign up to get involved please get in touch.

Students and placements

Unfortunately, we are not routinely able to offer student placements or internships at The London Archives unless where organised as part of an academic programme.

Level 7 Apprenticeships

The London Archives offers the Level 7 Archivist and Records Manager Apprenticeship in conjunction with Westminster Adult Education Service, please visit their website for information on current opportunities.