Digital Preservation Analyst

Description

Job Summary

Although the position will remain posted until filled, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply by end of day on June 10, 2022.

Harvard Library is seeking a Digital Preservation Analyst to join the Digital Preservation Services (DPS) team in the Preservation Services department. Reporting to a Senior Digital Preservation Specialist and collaborating with Harvard University units and Library Technology Services, the incumbent will provide support for DPS’s portfolio of services and systems, including the Digital Repository Service (DRS) and Email Archiving System (EAS), soon to be replaced by ePADD, as well as the hosted Archive-It (AIT) web archiving service. Additional responsibilities include developing and delivering documentation and training modules; collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data about these services and systems; maintaining the public online web presence for the Digital Preservation team; and collaboratively investigating innovative solutions for challenges such as software emulation and digital forensics.

This position provides opportunity for engaging with colleagues and curatorial units across the University and applying sophisticated analyses, strategies, and technologies to the profound task of ensuring the ongoing integrity, accessibility, authenticity, and usability of the University’s deep, broad, and often unique digital collections for scholarly use now and in the future. Digital Preservation currently provides effective and sustainable stewardship for over 10.6 million unique works composed of more than 229 million files in 90 formats totaling 2 petabytes in replicated form. To help us with the critical work enabling the long-term preservation of this ever-growing body of critical material, we are looking for someone with enthusiasm to take on grand challenges, relentless curiosity in pursuit of effective and sustainable solutions, and an openness to exploration and experimentation grounded in theoretical rigor and practical experience.
 

Position Description

• Work with over fifty Harvard University units to develop and enhance DPS systems and services, ensuring that they meet a wide range of evolving stakeholder needs

• Maintain statistics, perform assessment analyses, and generate reports and visualizations

• Collaborate with Library Technology Services to ensure high availability and performance of systems and services by documenting library business requirements and triaging reported problems and enhancement requests

• Contribute to the design and maintenance of content models, management plans, and workflows to ensure the long-term viability of Harvard Library’s digital collections in various digitized and born-digital formats

• Maintain awareness of developments in the digital stewardship community, including evolving standards and technologies

• Develop and present documentation and training modules for tools and services offered by DPS

• Spearhead a variety of outreach vehicles, such as public and internal-facing websites and wikis, blog posts about project updates, and meetings to elicit feedback, communicate project statuses, and demonstrate tools and services

• Participate in Harvard Library and Preservation Services working groups and committees

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in library and information science from an ALA-accredited university, or equivalent combination of education and experience

• Experience with digital preservation technology, concepts, and standards

Additional Qualifications and Skills

• Experience managing or supporting digital content and systems and services at a library, archive, museum, or research-focused institution

• Proficiency in Structured Query Language (SQL) Relational Database Management (RDBM) data modeling and querying

• Proficiency in data analysis and visualization

• Experience with Shell, Perl, or Python scripting

• Familiarity with MODS, METS, PREMIS and other metadata standards relevant to digital preservation and libraries

• Familiarity with software emulation and digital forensics

• Experience working on projects with both technical and non-technical contributors

• Experience developing and documenting functional requirements

• Excellent oral and written communication and interpersonal skills in a collaborative and collegial work environment

• Experience scheduling and running meetings

• Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging, and anti-racism

Working Conditions

The position will be based on our campus in Cambridge, MA., however there is the opportunity for a flexible, hybrid, or remote work model compliant with Harvard University work policies.

Additional Information

The core research and teaching missions of Harvard University are increasingly dependent upon digital content. Digital materials are inherently fragile and dependent on technologies and contexts that change continuously. One of the key challenges of the twenty-first century is how to preserve the utility of this digital material for future generations of scholars. The Digital Preservation Services team develops, maintains, enhances, and promotes an ever-evolving set of systems, services, and initiatives that ensure the archival integrity, accessibility, authenticity, and usability of the University’s digital collections. These efforts are supported by ongoing consultation and cooperation with Harvard libraries, archives, and museums as well as close collaboration with Library Technology Services.

Learn more by visiting https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/digital-preservation.