Sporting Archives Surveying Officer

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Thanks to National Lottery players, Supporting Scotland’s Sporting Heritage () will run from , with the aim of making collections more accessible, securing collections at-risk, and deepening the public's understanding of Scotland’s rich sporting history.

Supporting Scotland’s Sporting Heritage will:

• Implement a national programme of surveying Scotland’s sporting archive collections that will engage custodians and users of collections led by the Sporting Archives Surveying Officer.

• Deliver a suite of public engagement activities overseen by a Sporting Heritage Engagement Officer.

The postholder will be responsible for planning, developing, and undertaking a national programme of archive surveying for Scotland’s sporting collections. This will include launching four thematic surveys, a scoping survey of national sporting bodies, as well as developing relevant content for National Sporting Heritage Day and a mid-project conference exploring sports archives, their care, and results of the project to-date.

The post holder will work closely with a dedicated Sporting Heritage Engagement Officer to support and deliver key project outreach and engagement workshops in a timely and efficient manner. The post holder will report to the Business Archives Surveying Officer.

• To carry out a national programme of surveying sporting collections across Scotland to ensure those most valuable to Scotland’s sporting heritage are preserved. This will include monitoring the sporting landscape to inform and establish thematic surveys.
• To undertake mapping activities to promote the preservation and use of Scotland’s sporting heritage.
• To advise sports clubs, bodies and record owners of sporting records on archives worthy of permanent retention, records management policies and the value of sporting archives.
• To liaise with partners and stakeholders to ensure the effective and creative use of selected archive content as part of wider project engagement activities.
• To facilitate digitisation of archive records to support engagement activities as required.
• Facilitating the deposit of sporting archives to the appropriate repositories when required.
• Maintaining effective regular communications with the National Register of Archives for Scotland regarding surveys, and the Sporting Heritage Scotland network.
• Advocating for the value of sporting heritage and promoting the work of the Sporting Archives Surveyor through active engagement in relevant networks (including the wider sporting community), speaking at conferences, developing case studies and publishing articles.
• The Surveyor is based at the Ballast Trust in Johnstone and will work a minimum of 2 days a week there to facilitate team-working, but the role will also require regular travel across Scotland to carry out records surveys.

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