Volunteering at Edinburgh City Archives

Edinburgh City Archives is helped in its work of preserving and making its collections more accessible to the public by a number of volunteers.

What volunteers do

Our volunteers are currently involved in various projects such as cleaning, sorting, repackaging and listing records, while others are working on the creation of indexes to assist people searching our historic records.  Their current projects involve cleaning and indexing both Leith and Edinburgh Dean of Guild Court records which include the petitions and architectural plans relating to building work in the City in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Our volunteers normally work in the public searchroom on days we are closed to the public (usually Mondays).  

Why people volunteer

Volunteering with the Archives Service provides an enjoyable learning opportunity and the chance to use existing skills and experience in a friendly working environment. 

If you might be interested in volunteering at Edinburgh City Archives please feel free to contact us.  Please bear in mind however, that identifying, organising and supervising such work is a time-consuming task, and that our limited staff resources restricts the number of volunteers we can manage at any one time.  Consequently, interested individuals may be added to our list of potential volunteers until time and resources allow us to offer specific projects.  

For more information please see our Volunteers Protocol .