Librarian II (Temp. Records Manager)

Description

The Johns Hopkins University is hiring an experienced records management consultant for a temporary appointment. The consultant will survey and analyze the recordkeeping environment of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in order to create a records management plan for the primary purpose of identifying and preserving the current and future records of enduring value of the Institute.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Interview key records creators and leadership at Space Telescope Science Institute to gain an understanding of the functions of the organization and the records they produce in support of those functions. The Johns Hopkins University Archivist will help to schedule these meetings.
• Prepare an inventory of records series maintained by offices, identifying in what format(s) they exist.
• Based on the inventory, create a records retention schedule that at a minimum identifies which records series do and do not merit permanent retention by the University Archives.
• Create a records management plan that recommends the workflow for transferring print, digitized, and born-digital records of permanent value from STScI to the administrative care of the University Archives. This workflow document must take into consideration that it will be followed by a designated Records Custodian (in collaboration with the University Archives) who will be an employee of STScI and not be a trained Records Manager.

Note: This position is not eligible for benefits. Hours worked not to exceed 280.

Additional Information:

The STScI currently employs approximately 500 FTE, the majority of whom work on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University in the Stephen Muller Building. The organization maintains approximately 15 functional unit heads, reporting to a Deputy Director and Director. The successful applicant will be provided an organizational chart for reference.

The STScI was established in 1981 through the combined efforts of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Its original purpose was to be the research institute for the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST), launched in a low-earth orbit in April 1990 via the space shuttle Discovery. This marked the first time that NASA entrusted a scientific undertaking to an independent institute. A home for the institute was chosen on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland after two years of negotiations between NASA and AURA members. Funding is provided contractually through NASA, while management of the institute is overseen by AURA. STScI worked with NASA and many contractors to design the instruments that formed Hubble's original payload. These consisted of the Wide Field Planetary Camera 1 (WFPC1), Faint Object Spectrometer (FOS), Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), High Speed Photometer (HSP), and the Faint Object Camera (FOC).

The Institute also evaluates observing proposals, schedules observation time, processes and archives the telescope's data for future scientific research, and formulates and provides public outreach activities for HST. The Institute is also the science and operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and data archive for all of NASA's optical/UV missions through the Multimission Archive at Space Telescope (MAST).

In 2007, STScI and Johns Hopkins University?s Sheridan Libraries (JHU) entered into an agreement whereby JHU would serve as the depository for the STScI?s administrative records of enduring value. Not governed by this arrangement is the data archive of Hubble Telescope images, which is maintained by NASA.

To date, STScI has transferred two significant accessions of historical records to JHU?s University Archives, in 2008 and 2011. Part of this collection has been processed and the finding aid for these materials is located at http://ead.library.jhu.edu/ms500.xml. Because STScI is a living organization that creates records (and therefore history) on a daily basis, more guidance is needed to better inform decisions about which records of STScI merit enduring retention due to their historical value, and which records can be disposed of because they are of short-term value. Furthermore, STScI and JHU need to begin to identify and collect records of enduring value that exist in electronic format, including emails, word documents, web content, and digital photographs. The Institute does have a records retention schedule that identifies legal requirements for some records series. However, this schedule does not acknowledge all records series maintained by the organization, and the retention periods only define legal needs, not business or historical needs. Based on these challenges, it has been determined that the STScI requires a records management plan to help STScI and JHU preserve the history of STScI in a more orderly fashion. Therefore, we seek a qualified external consultant to perform this work.

• While we leave many decisions up to the expertise of the consultant, the records management plan must contain the following characteristics:
• The plan must accommodate records in any format as they are currently managed by STScI staff: print, digitized, or electronic.
• The plan at a minimum must identify which records series merit enduring or permanent retention by the University Archives.
• The plan must describe a recommended workflow for transferring print and electronic records of enduring value from STScI to the administrative care of the University Archives.
• The plan must take into consideration that it will be followed by a designated Records Custodian (in collaboration with the University Archives) who will not be a trained Records Manager. In other words, the plan must be effective but easy to implement.

Qualifications:

• MLS from an ALA-accredited library school or an advanced related degree.
• Two years related experience.

Please submit the following information with your online application(as one PDF):

• A cover letter summarizing your qualifications;
• A narrative describing the work you would be providing and proposed deliverables following completion of the work;
• Your resume and references.
• For more information, please contact Jordon Steele, University Archivist, at jsteele@jhu.edu. (No phone calls, please).