Job Title: Archivist, Digital Preservation

Department: Archive Solutions 

FLSA Status: Exempt

Summary: 

Gates Archive is the private archive of the personal and philanthropic 
collections of the Gates family. Committed to creating a culture of learning 
and belonging, we are a team working to build a next generation archive with a 
focus on digital-forward processes.

Gates Archive is seeking an Archivist focused on Digital Preservation to 
develop, implement, and refine plans and activities for born-digital and 
digitally reformatted document, photographic, and audiovisual materials. The 
Archivist will be part of the Preservation team and will focus on preservation 
of digital materials across their lifecycle. The Archivist will regularly 
collaborate with other programs including Donor Relations, Acquisitions, 
Processing, Production, Asset Management, Access, and Outreach. The Archivist 
will also contribute to physical preservation initiatives as needed.

Core Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each 
responsibility satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable 
individuals with disabilities to perform the core responsibilities.

Oversee preservation workflow development and execution under direction of the 
Manager, Preservation & Production and in collaboration with other Archive 
Services and Solutions staff. The Archivist will:
Develop and execute digital preservation workflows that meet collection and 
user needs.
Collaboratively establish preservation priorities. Maintain and oversee use of 
locally established digital preservation policies and protocols across the 
organization and regularly assess practices.
Develop and maintain expertise in the organization’s digital preservation 
system (Preservica) and other preservation tools. Recommend and implement 
changes to the digital preservation system (DPS), tools, and workflows. Take on 
business ownership for the DPS including:
soliciting feedback from DPS users and designing, configuring, and coordinating 
testing of features, workflows, and settings to fit the requirements of the 
collection and users
collaborating with the Archive’s technology team on upgrades, escalations, 
designing system integrations, and documenting application support workflows
developing and managing guidance for Archive staff on use of the DPS and 
providing advanced support to teams using the system for ingest and access


Define preservation and access package structures and file migration pathways 
for priority format types; collaborating across teams to understand user needs 
and requirements; proactively monitoring, migrating, and/or emulating at-risk 
formats.
Contribute to physical preservation activities and initiatives, including 
collection care and emergency planning activities.
Provide guidance to other archivists and donors on preservation formats, 
metadata, transfer, and imaging best practices for a variety of file format and 
carrier types.


In collaboration with the technology team, ensure digital preservation and 
staging storage locations meet organizational needs and archival best practices.
Collaborate with team and track leadership to develop annual priorities, 
projects, and initiatives for relevant program track areas. Lead and/or 
participate in strategic projects in support of organizational and programmatic 
goals.
Maintain statistics and prepare regular reports; use data to inform program 
planning and continued process improvement.
Provide leadership based on advances in professional standards and emerging 
archival technologies; explore and propose new technologies and methods to meet 
archive needs.
Build a culture of belonging across the organization in alignment with the 
organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

Supervisory Responsibilities: 
May oversee daily work activities of employees, contract staff and/or vendors 
but does not directly manage employees.
Education and Experience:

Education:
A Master’s Degree of Library & Information Science or History with a 
concentration or certification in archival studies, or equivalent combination 
of education and professional experience
Experience:

5+ years professional work experience in an archive environment acquiring, 
processing, preserving, and/or providing access to archival collections
Demonstrated familiarity with archival standards, principles, practices 
(preservation, arrangement, description), digital preservation standards, and 
emerging trends
Experience developing and overseeing workflows, managing priorities, and 
executing fulfillment of information requests, including interpreting, and 
applying restrictions for access to and/or use of archival materials
Experience using digital preservation systems and archival collection 
management systems
Experience working with born-digital materials, including ingest and management 
of content
Experience working with donor institutions/individuals directly to appraise and 
acquire content, preferred
Experience with service vendor relationships and projects involving vendor 
selection, implementation, and quality control preferred. 

Skills and Abilities:

Must be able to work collegially and collaboratively
Demonstrated command and application of modern archival theory, standards, and 
practices and their implementation. This knowledge includes proven experience 
with appraisal methods, acquisitions, arrangement, description, preservation, 
and access (physical/digital) in a professional archive setting
Experience transferring content from legacy media such as hard drives, floppy 
disks, and zip disks, including creating disk images
Knowledge of relevant standards for archival description and preservation, 
e.g., DACS, EAD, METS, PREMIS, and familiarity with other metadata standards
Proven ability to develop and maintain end-to-end archival workflows and 
procedure manuals and guides to support the effective management of physical 
and born-digital content
Demonstrated ability to learn new technical skills through research and 
self-study and experience applying information technologies to archival and 
preservation work
Familiarity with physical preservation practices and standards
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a production-oriented, rapidly 
changing environment; proven ability to prioritize work, set goals and 
milestones, and meet deadlines
Strong organizational and interpersonal communication skills
Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing
Familiarity with database management, word processing, spreadsheet software, 
and web-based applications and technologies used in an archives environment 
Able to use Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and content management systems
Familiarity with software development, issue tracking, and configuration 
processes (preferred)
Familiarity with APIs and command line (preferred)
Experience with XSLT, Xpath, Xquery, Python, and/or Bash (preferred)
Experience with digital asset management systems (preferred)
Experience with emulation platforms (preferred)
Experience with Preservica, BitCurator, and/or Forensics Toolkit (preferred)

Working Conditions & Expected Hours of Work:  

Work is done in a typical open office environment. This role routinely uses 
standard office equipment.
This position requires the availability to work evenings, weekends and 
holidays. 

Physical Demands: 

This is a largely sedentary role; however, some occasional light lifting may be 
required. Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible 
amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or 
otherwise move objects, including the human body.
Medium work. Exerting up to 40 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 20 
pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move 
objects.
Frequently required to stand; walk; sit; talk; hear; use hands/manual 
dexterity, and fingers to handle or touch/sense, and reach and stretch with 
hands and arms.
Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance 
vision, night vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and 
ability to adjust focus.
May be required to climb or balance, crouch, squat, kneel, stoop or crawl.
May be required to have a sense of taste and smell.

Travel Requirements:

Domestic and International travel may be required. 
Must have the ability to obtain and maintain international travel documents 
such as a US passport or other equivalent documents.

Background Review/Interview:
Must be able to satisfy background check and related requirements. 
Annual salary:

Starting at approximately $96,000

How to apply:

To apply, submit a resume and cover letter to [email protected].

Deadline for applications:

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. 
Preference will be given to applications received by Jan 28th, 2022.

 

Each employee has the ability to make a significant contribution to the success 
of our organization. That contribution is not limited by the assigned 
responsibilities. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any 
time with or without notice. This position description is designed to outline 
primary duties, qualifications and job scope, but not limit the incumbent nor 
the organization to adjust the work identified or assigned. It is expected that 
each employee will offer his/her services wherever and whenever necessary to 
ensure overall success.

 


----
Brought to you by code4lib jobs: 
https://jobs.code4lib.org/jobs/51059-archivist-digital-preservation

Reply via email to