*SORRY THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOT AVAILABLE AT PRESENT*

The Ouseburn Trust maintains an archive of photographs about Byker and Ouseburn over the last 50 years. It has also been given the care of two large photographic archives

• Richard Blosse – photos of Byker 1978-80
• Photos by the late Davey Pearson, 1970 – 2000.

The archive is stored physically in our offices, and is being scanned and catalogued using electronically using industry-standard MODES software. Take a look at a sample of our photos here.

Our volunteers identify the subject and location of each photo - it requires accuracy, perseverance and detective work, using a variety of online tools (flickr, google street view) as well as local knowledge.  They may also conduct searches on behalf of researchers and the general public and get involved in creating online and travelling exhibitions. 

Our volunteers develop new skills, gain confidence and find they learn to appreciate the local area in a different way.

Volunteers will need:

• An interest in local history.
• To be IT literate, comfortable learning new software.
• Commitment to enter data accurately.
• Perseverance in identifying subjects of photos.
• A good knowledge of the Ouseburn/Byker area.

Training provided

Experienced volunteers train new volunteers for the first couple of sessions (this is only available on Thursday mornings):

• to use Modes to catalogue photos.
• to gain experience in photo research.

They continue to support new volunteers until they are confident to work on their own.

As some training is required this is not a short term volunteering opportunity. Volunteers need to be able to give one or more sessions a week (morning or afternoon on a Tuesday or Thursday) for the medium-long term.