Digital Archivist

Description

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

Guided by an ethic of Vincentian personalism and professionalism, DePaul compassionately upholds the dignity of all members of its diverse, multi-faith, and inclusive community. We seek to hire collaborative, open-minded, and dedicated professionals who are committed to advancing our university mission to making education accessible to all, with special attention to including underserved and underrepresented communities. Successful candidates thrive in an environment where ideas and perspectives representing a wide variety of cultures, backgrounds and experiences are welcome and supported.

The Highlights
DePaul Special Collections and Archives seeks a well-rounded archivist who will oversee the acquisition, description, access, and preservation of digital records as part of a digital preservation program that anticipates the needs of a community-centered, teaching-focused academic library. The Digital Archivist will have an interest in DePaul’s archival collections and topical strengths, and will leverage technology to assist in core archival and teaching functions. The Digital Archivist will work in a highly supportive, collegial culture that encourages active participation in meaningful and valuable skills training and professional development. This includes training workshops, committee memberships, and engagement in programs that support the Library’s mission and its Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access goals, while building connections and partnerships across DePaul’s wider academic and user community.

Digital Archives Preservation Program 

• Reviews, revises, and supports the use of locally established digital preservation policies and protocols.
• Develops metrics for ongoing assessment of the digital preservation program.
• Develops and maintains expertise in the digital preservation system (e.g., Preservica) and other preservation and access tools.
• Leads efforts to acquire, preserve, describe, and provide access to born-digital and digitized Special Collections and Archives materials.
• Leads efforts to advise on, capture, and preserve websites, social media, and email included in records transfers or archival donations.
• Coordinates transfer of digital content from a variety of current and legacy media formats (tapes, floppy disks, CDS, hard drives), ensuring preservation and access.
• Collaborates with the Library’s digital services and technical services departments on upgrades, system integrations, and documenting application support workflows.
• Serves as contact for vendor and product communications and support.

Digital Archives Access and Description 

• Leads discovery and access initiatives for digital materials.
• Maintains and revises EAD and DACS implementation guidelines in relation to systems employed by the department and Library.
• Develops and maintains expertise in the collections management and intellectual access system (e.g., ArchivesSpace).
• Collaborates with colleagues to process hybrid archival collections and create finding aids, consulting physical collections as needed for context and continuity.

Special Projects and Project Management 

• Leads and/or participates in annual projects in support of the department’s goals, and the Library’s and University’s strategic plans.
• Collaborates with colleagues to identify Special Collections and Archives materials for digital reformatting and exhibits.
• Consults physical archival collections, assessing intellectual and artifactual value, to determine audience, scope, and unmet research need when planning new digital projects.
• Serves as departmental project manager for reformatting, digitization, and digital exhibit projects.
• Advises on platforms, file types, and metadata standards for digital projects and exhibits showcasing Special Collections and Archives content.

Reference and Instruction 

• Assists in-person and remote researchers by identifying materials of interest and supplying requested information.
• Supervises the reading room during regularly scheduled desk shifts and as-needed substitute coverage.
• Assists in the selection of materials for instruction sessions, especially in relation to digital content.
• Provides support for the Special Collections and Archives instruction program, for introductory courses or in areas utilizing the Digital Archivist’s academic background or interest.
• Plans and delivers outreach sessions on digital preservation activities to assist donors and records creators. 
• Assists the University Archivist in outreach and workplace learning initiatives aimed at University records coordinators.

Professional Development and Service

• Maintains an awareness of best practices for digital preservation within academic libraries and archives, through reading in the scholarly and professional literature, participation in relevant conferences, workshops, and professional development programs, and applies lessons. learned to current needs in Special Collections and Archives. 
• Participates and represents the DePaul University Library in University, state, regional, or national professional service activities.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Your Education

• Master's degree from an ALA-accredited program, or Master’s degree and equivalent. combination of coursework and professional experience to meet requirements.
• Two years of experience with digital preservation lifecycle planning and implementation in a library or archives setting. 
• Experience working with born-digital materials, including ingest and management of content.
• Demonstrated knowledge of and proficiency with modern archival theory, standards, principles, practices (appraisal, acquisition, description, access, and preservation) of both physical and digital materials in a library or archives setting.
• Demonstrated knowledge of archival content management systems and related tools, digital preservation standards, and emerging trends.
• Demonstrated familiarity with data structure standards relevant to the archival control of digital materials (e.g., EAD, Dublin Core, XML/XSL).

Preferred Requirements

• Familiarity and experience with disk imaging and e-mail and website archiving tools and techniques.
• Experience transferring content from legacy media such as hard drives, floppy disks, and zip disks, including creating disk images.
• Knowledge of generating checksums, preservation metadata and experience working with tools that verify file authenticity and that identify potentially restricted content.
• Knowledge of scripting languages such as Ruby or Python.
• Familiarity with records management practices.
• Experience working with donor institutions/individuals directly to appraise and acquire content.
• Experience providing direct services to researchers or patrons in an archives or library setting.

Managerial Responsibilities

• May train and supervise student employees; may guide and train colleagues on workflows and best practices; may proof, edit, and correct metadata created by others. 

Other Skills & Abilities Required

• Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to adapt to change with flexibility, creativity, and sound judgment.
• Ability to learn new technical skills through research and self-study.
• Ability to read and comprehend handwritten and printed text, and to create accurate structured and narrative descriptions with minimal oversight or intervention.
• Experience working both independently and collaboratively in a collegial, team-based environment and maintaining positive working relationships. 
• Ability to communicate technical issues to non-technical staff.
• Ability to develop and document procedures and workflow. 
• Excellent planning, project management, and problem-solving skills. 
• Ability to oversee multiple projects, meet deadlines, and prioritize work in alignment with strategic goals.
• Ability to work with diverse constituencies.
• Knowledge of information technology resources, print information resources, and web-based information resources required to provide excellent library services.
• Familiarity with database management, word processing, spreadsheet software, and web-based applications and technologies used in a library or archives environment.

Additional Information
For consideration, please include a resume and cover letter. Priority consideration for those that apply by April 8th.

• Occasional evening and weekend hours, and the ability to travel between DePaul University campuses is required. 
• This is an in-person position based at the Richardson Library on the Lincoln Park campus.
• The DePaul University Library has enacted a teleworking policy that provides some flexibility in work arrangements based on the needs of each department, in accordance with university policy.
• More information is available on the HR website.