Volunteer role to program our Access database

The Richard Roberts Archive based in Stockport for the past ten years occupies a 7,500 square-foot warehouse in Adswood. We receive, process, catalogue and preserve a diverse collection of advertising materials and seek to make them available to visiting members of the public, students and academics. Advertising materials can be, and have been, used as resources for general study, industrial history and family history. We provide a paying service for commercial users. Our catalogued items exceed a quarter of a million, including a collection of 37,000 paper-based ads and a range of advertising ephemera such as beer mats and counter cards.

There are currently twenty-two volunteers and are delighted to report that this volunteer base is remarkably diverse. We are proud to engage with local neuro-divergent charities. As a result, our volunteers offer a wide range of skills and potential. Most volunteers are involved with cataloguing, product filing and scanning, but we have volunteers who are invaluable in, for example, maintaining and improving the fabric of the building, cleaning and setting up our photographic studio.

Any saleable surplus materials are offered for sale on our ebay shop, which provides one of our income streams.