Archivist, Digital Archives

Description

Job summary

The responsibilities of this job include the supervision, coordination and monitoring of the archival projects, and specifically the born-digital archives. The incumbent oversees and develops local practices for managing born-digital material held and acquired by the CCA and assists in the strategic direction of acquisition, preservation, and access to born-digital and paper-based archives. The incumbent serves as the local manager of Archivematica, and coordinate support and development of the CCA’s digital repository with the IT department and Artefactual Systems. The incumbent plays a key role in the documentation of archives through the development of standards and procedures, classification and description and works closely with the Digital division in developing a digital culture at the CCA.

Key responsibilities

Management of born-digital archives

• Develop and document practices for the arrangement, description, preservation, and management of born-digital archives in accordance with international standards and best practices
• Plan, prioritize and review the processing of born-digital archives
• Supervise the born-digital projects, including review and approval processing plans and editing archival descriptions
• Collaborate with Reference, the Digital division, and external developers for on-site access to the digital archives
• Collaborate with the Program, Research and Publications divisions in deciphering research material related – but not exclusively – to born digital archives and evaluating the relevancy for public concern
• Manage daily use and collaborate with Artefactual Systems and the IT department on the strategic development of CCA’s Archivematica digital preservation system
• Manage daily use and collaborate with Artefactual Systems and the Digital division on the strategic development of CCA’s Digital Archives Access Interface (open-source software)
• Manage scripts and software utilities used in appraisal, arrangement, description, and SIP creation on dedicated BitCurator processing workstations
• Supervises implementation of digital forensics tools and techniques for disk imaging of digital storage media

Acquisition of born-digital archives

• Develop CCA’s capacity to responsibly acquire electronic records and papers
• Investigate potential acquisitions and evaluate proposed acquisitions
• Coordinate transfers of digital files from donors, and acting as a liaison between records creators at CCA’s curatorial, archival, preservation and technical staff
• Work directly with records creators to advise on record-keeping practices that will facilitate the eventual transfer of their archives

Advisory and administrative responsibilities

• Advise CCA staff of the functional requirements for acquiring, accessioning, preserving, arranging, describing, and providing access to (born-digital) archives and train archivists, curators, cataloguers, and interns as necessary
• Prepare, with the access and archivists team, for a potential migration of archival metadata into a new archival management system
• Contribute to discussions surrounding the management of digital assets, metadata as well as the representation and service of digital and digitized materials
• Serve as the Collection Division’s internal and external representative and authority on issues related to (born-digital) archives

Required qualifications

• Education: Master’s degree in library science, archival science, or other relevant field
• Experience: 3-5 years working in an archival repository, including experience working with born-digital archival material
• Ability to work effectively in French and English
• Project management experience • Knowledge of ISAD(G), RAD, DACS, and other archival descriptive standards
• Demonstrated familiarity with data structure standards relevant to the archival control of digital collection materials (EAD, Dublin Core, MODS, METS, PREMIS)
• Demonstrated knowledge of digital preservation standards such as OAIS and Trustworthy Digital Repositories
• Knowledge of a wide range of computer storage media, file systems, software, and file formats
• Demonstrated experience in reading, using and manipulating both digitized and born-digital architectural records in common formats and programs (AutoCAD/Revit, VectorWorks, Microstation, Rhino, Maya, etc.)
• Experience applying tools such as Archivematica and BitCurator to process born-digital archives
• Fluency in using GitHub, and experience in contributing to open-source projects
• Knowledge in working in Linux and with command-line interfaces
• Familiarity with programming/scripting languages such as Python, Ruby, and bash

Please submit your application by 18 June 2018 by email: rh@cca.qc.ca to the attention of Human Resources, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920 Baile Street, Montreal (Quebec) H3H 2S6. Only successful applicants will be contacted. Please do not call.

The CCA is an equal opportunity employer.

Status:    Contractual (3 years), full time (35hrs/week)

Posting period:    From 30 May to 18 June 2018