Volunteering

We welcome volunteers and really value the contribution they make to our work.

By joining one of our volunteer projects you'll:

Help preserve Norfolk's archives and improve access to our collections
Get hands-on experience of working with Norfolk's archive heritage
Improve your skills and knowledge
Do something worthwhile
Meet other people interested in history

Current opportunities

Writing posts for Norfolk Record Office's (NRO's) blog

We are always looking for people to research and write posts for the NRO's blog. After researching documents in the NRO's searchroom, you will write a 300 or 1000 word blog post about them. Some documents are available digitally if you are unable to visit in person.

We run training sessions periodically (see the events page of NRO's blog for upcoming dates). You can email norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk to request a toolkit. The training and toolkit cover:

How to carry out research
Writing for an audience
An introduction to our blogs

If you are happy for us to do so, we will include your name under your published blog. This may be helpful for you to use on your CV or other applications.

Recording for 'Reading from the Archives'

Join a small group of volunteers who record extracts from our documents for our 'Reading from the Archives' sessions. We will train you on how to use Audacity and Microsoft PowerPoint. You will record, edit and export your recording via a toolkit. If you prefer, you are welcome to use other software.

Before each session we will send you a list of document transcripts and ask you to choose the one you would like to record. Once complete, we will play these recordings during the session. We will also include them in the version we publish on NRO's YouTube channel.

If you would like to join this project, please email norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk. Use 'For the attention of Education and Outreach' as the subject heading of your email.

Why not also try our online transcription project? For more details see the Volunteering at King's Lynn Borough Archives section below.

Indexing and Collection Care Projects

Volunteering days for onsite volunteers are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We also run remote projects which you can do from home at a time which suits you. All volunteers contribute about 3 hours per week. We don't usually offer full-time or short-term placements. You must be aged 18 or over.

We have spaces for about 20 volunteers on our indexing and collection care projects. All the projects are currently full. You will have to wait for some months before a place is available.

If you would like to join the waiting list, please email norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk and tell us:

Which project interests you
Your motivation for volunteering
Whether there is a time limit on your availability.

Indexing Norwich Prison registers of prisoners, 1880-1924 (remote project)

You can perform this role from home. Volunteers extract details of each prisoner using digital images of the prison registers. This includes the prisoner's name, occupation, age, and crime. Once added to the NRO's catalogue, this information will enable people to:

Find entries in the registers for individuals they are searching for
Search for specific types of crimes.

Indexing HM Prison Norwich registers role description (PDF, 86 KB)

Indexing Norwich building control plans, 1895-1945 (onsite project)

This is an opportunity to help index architectural plans of Norwich buildings, including houses, shops and factories.

You can find out more about building control plans with volunteers on the NRO blog.  Read our volunteer's experiences of the project on our blog.

Indexing post 1857 wills (onsite project)

Use our original will registers to index names, places of residence and occupations.

Indexing post 1857 wills role description (PDF, 385 KB)

Cleaning and repackaging maps and plans (onsite project)

Volunteers use conservation-grade sponges to gently remove surface dirt from maps. This helps preserve them for the future. You can find out more about this project on the NRO blog.

Assisting with collection care role description (PDF, 83 KB)

Archive Packaging and Seal Sock Group

These volunteers assist with the long-term preservation of the NRO's collections by improving document packaging. This includes:

Transferring documents into archive-quality folders and boxes
Removing metal fastenings
Sewing foam seal socks to protect document seals.

Members meet as a group one morning every 4-6 weeks.

Archive packaging and seal sock group role description (PDF, 79 KB)

Assisting at education and outreach events

There are occasional opportunities to help our education and outreach team with events.

Assisting education and outreach role description (PDF, 42 KB)

Placements and Work Experience

Find out more about our Introduction to Archive Research days and blogging placements.

Volunteering at King's Lynn Borough Archives

Based at the King's Lynn Borough Archives, volunteers transcribe documents from the Borough's records. These include the Hall Books, Quarter Sessions books, medieval charters, and more.

They are also helping to index building control plans for the town, dating from 1883 to c1959.

Our Lynn volunteers also research and write posts for the NRO blog.

If you wish to volunteer from home, you can help transcribe the King's Lynn Hall Books. We use a Zooniverse transcription webpage. To find out more, see our blog post about King's Lynn Borough Archives. This is an unsupervised project.

For information about volunteering at Lynn, email norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk.