Consulting Archivist

Description

American Academy in Rome
Consulting Archivist

Organization
The American Academy in Rome, founded in 1894, awards the Rome Prize to a select group of artists and scholars, after an application process that begins in the fall of each year. The winners, announced in the spring, are invited to Rome to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic freedom, interdisciplinary exchange, and innovation. The community includes Fellows, Residents, Visiting Artists and Scholars, and, come June, members of academic Summer Programs. The organization employs a staff of 50 in Rome and 15 in its office in New York City.

Position Description
The American Academy in Rome seeks a Consulting Archivist to work part-time from its offices in midtown New York City. The archivist will continue the work on processing and managing the Academy’s paper archival documents as part of a recurring deposit to the Archives of American Art. The collections are managed in a new online database that uses ArchivesSpace. The ideal candidate will be aware of the development of ArchivesSpace in the archives community and preferably had experience using it on behalf of an organization. In addition to managing the Academy’s archival documents in the New York office, the archivist must be able to create new metadata for born digital assets and serve as a resource and collaborator for archivists leading digitization projects in Rome. The Rome offices house an Archaeology Study Collection with over 5,000 digitized objects and a Photographic Archive with over 70,000 prints and negatives and 15,000 images. The growing digital assets of both collections are also managed in ArchivesSpace.

The Consulting Archivist should have a professional degree from a library school or other appropriate degree or equivalent experience in one or more fields relevant to library science. Previous positions or internships are preferred, specifically including experience processing manuscript/archival materials, developing processing plans, and working under strict deadlines. The successful candidate will also have in-depth knowledge of current developments in archival processing; knowledge of preservation and conservation standards and procedures for manuscript/archival materials; and excellent analytical, interpersonal, time management, organizational skills, and problem-solving skills, as well as excellent written and oral communication abilities.

This is a part-time position with no benefits, but flexible hours are possible.  The candidate will work from the New York City office of the Academy (in midtown).  The Consulting Archivist will report to Dr. Sebastian Hierl, Drue Heinz Librarian in the Rome office of the Academy.

Required skills

• Experience using ArchivesSpace, Archivists’ Toolkit, or Archon
• Working knowledge of metadata standards including MARC, EAD, VRA, and Dublin Core
• Experience using a website CMS like Wordpress or Drupal
• Ability to scale, crop, color balance, and apply basic retouching to images in Adobe Photoshop and work with metadata in Adobe Bridge.

The Consulting Archivist will:

Archival Documents

• Survey the existing paper collections in the Academy’s New York office
• Develop a plan and timetable for unprocessed collections
• Continue processing in ArchivesSpace database
• Order materials and supplies for the archives
• Coordinate future deposits with the Archives of American Art

ArchivesSpace

• Work with the existing catalog of paper assets
• Process new collections in ArchivesSpace
• Serve as a resource for archivists for additional archaeological and photographic collections in Rome

Digital Images

• Update metadata for existing digital image collections in New York
• Create new metadata for born digital image collections
• Work in Photoshop and a Drupal CMS

To Apply
Send a CV or resume and cover letter to jobs@aarome.org with the position title Consulting Archivist in the subject line. Your cover letter must explain why you feel particularly qualified to do the job and highlight relevant experience.

Your files must follow the naming convention below and be attached to your message as 2 separate PDFs.

YOURLASTNAME_firstname_letter.pdf
YOURLASTNAME_firstname_cv.pdf
Applications will be accepted until the position has been filled. Qualified applicants will be contacted for an interview.

The deadline to apply is 22 August at 5:00pm EST.