Volunteering at the Department of Zoology
By volunteer, we mean a person who, with the approval of the authority, performs tasks at the Swedish Museum of Natural History but does not have an employment relationship with the authority and does not receive any financial compensation for the contribution. The tasks are voluntary, agreed upon, and time-limited, and they are not part of the regular operations.
Being a volunteer can be very rewarding. You provide assistance where needed and, at the same time, gain pleasant colleagues and rich experiences. Some volunteer to gain work experience, others because they love working in a museum with museum objects, or perhaps they have a special interest in a particular animal group.
It is mainly within the operations of our research collections that we accept volunteers by agreement. Tasks may vary but often involve improving collection storage, registering collection items in a database, handling donations to be incorporated into the main collections, and more.
We are looking for volunteers who are passionate about working with zoological collections. You are expected to be willing to dedicate a certain minimum amount of time, for example one or two days a week for a year. You will have a supervisor who will assign tasks to you, and after a training period, you are expected to handle them relatively independently. Acceptance of volunteers is made for a maximum of one year at a time but can be extended if it is mutually desired.
