Digital Archivist

Description

It's the magic of immersing yourself in a motion picture masterpiece, or a new track from your favorite band, or the spectacle of a live Broadway show.  It’s hard to define and even harder to create, but that’s what we do at The Walt Disney Studios.  Ours is a culture of innovation, collaboration and creativity.  We raise the bar, then step over it, blazing trails through the production and distribution of world-class entertainment around the globe.  If you want to help tell compelling, enduring stories through movies, music or stage plays, then we want to hear from you.

The Walt Disney Studios encompasses the creation, production, promotion, sales, acquisition and domestic and international distribution of live-action and animated motion pictures, home entertainment releases, live stage plays, and music and soundtrack recordings.

As a member of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library (ARL), the Digital Archivist is responsible for building, organizing and maintaining the Walt Disney Animation Studio’s digital production archive.  The position is also responsible for liaising with production departments to ensure long-term storage viability of assets, creating policies and the day-to-day care and feeding of the repository.  This position will report to the Technology Manager of the Animation Research Library.

This position works with a team of professionals dedicated to digitizing the physical artwork of the ARL collection at the highest possible level of quality The ARL houses a collection of more than 60,000,000 pieces of original artwork, which includes, but is not limited to, conceptual art, storyboards, maquettes, hand drawn production art, 3D models, textures, image files and final rendered images.  The Digital Archivist is an integral member of a team of Collection, Exhibition, Research & Image Capture Specialists who make up the ARL.

Responsibilities

• Creates and sets workflow standards for cataloging and ingestion of assets.
• Responsible for metadata accuracy and policy guideline adherence.
• Design and configure future production metadata models, while maintaining current system
• Create and maintain the integrity of the ARL-TGM (Thesaurus of Graphic Materials), add new terms and review existing terms.
• Responsible for acquiring and maintaining knowledge of state of the art information collection and retrieval technologies for digital assets, including search engines, query methods, metadata assignment and extraction methods, etc., in order to research and implement new systems and protocols.
• Create reports and queries from ARL and production databases, for senior management review.
• Must follow in-house procedures for handling original artwork.
• Interaction with External Disney Groups:
• Work closely with Walt Disney Animation Studio departments to ensure efficient asset delivery and adherence to guidelines.
• Represent ARL at various corporate-level discussions.
• End User Support:
• Guide, facilitate and enforce end users to understand search and retrieval requirement
• Establish guidelines for, and assist in, the training of personnel

Basic Qualifications

• A BS degree and a minimum of 3 years of equivalent work experience (MLS is highly desirable) in digital archiving and/or library science.
• Working knowledge of trends in arrangement, description & management of digitally born materials in archival collections is critical.
• Knowledge of metadata standards such as Dublin Core, METS, EAD, and PREMIS.
• Familiarity with OAIS standards, TRAC principles, and best practices in assessment of needs and development of workflows in digital preservation strategies to aid in policy creation and governance.
• Strong technical skills: format validation and conversion methods, data integrity techniques and technologies, long term storage planning, and digital asset management systems.
• Ability to automate and script tasks to aid in managing large sets of records and files; proficiency in Unix shell scripting, SQL, Python, and HTML is required.
• QC record metadata on a regular basis to ensure policy compliance
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills are a must
• Appreciation of, and interest in, animation and art history is highly desired
• Strong knowledge of digital formats related to animation production desired
• Highly organized, efficient and detail oriented.
• Ability to work independently and in a team