Project Archivist

Description

Position Type:                       Contractor
Duration:                                August 28, 2023 – August 30, 2024 with potential for continued employment
Hours Per Week:                   40
Hours Per Year:                     2,080
Salary:                                    $52,000
Application Deadline:            August 7, 2023
Reports to:                             Ana Niño, BRIT Librarian

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden extends an invitation to join a small team with the grand task of digitizing the late botanist Sherwin Carlquist’s archival collection.  Beyond preserving and digitizing this collection of 161,019 items, the purpose of the Project Archivist position will be to link BRIT Library’s materials to Carlquist’s herbarium specimens at California Botanic Garden.

FWBG’s mission is to explore, discover, and engage with the world of plants together with our community.  BRIT Library contributes to this mission by supporting botanical research and education in Texas and around the world. Housing one of the largest collections of botanical works in the southwestern United States, the BRIT Library collection serves as a valuable research tool for those studying systematic botany, horticulture, natural history, and ethnobotany.

Primary Goals of Project Archivist:    
The main goal of the Project Archivist is to image, preserve, and describe field photographs and index envelopes from the Sherwin Carlquist Collection.  This role is funded by National Science Foundation-funded digitization project, “Advancing the Extended Specimen Network: Curating and Digitizing the Sherwin Carlquist Collection”.  

Duties of the Project Archivist position are performed in professional offices, the Library Reading Room, and the Library stacks rooms.  The Project Archivist will work independently in a dimly lit photographic studio environment most of the time. This individual should be able to demonstrate initiative, willingness to make mistakes, be comfortable asking questions, clarifying instructions, offering suggestions for improvement, and reporting progress on tasks assigned. They will need to be organized and motivated to complete their work with minimal supervision while also working well with others on collaborative tasks. This work is primarily sedentary with some active tasks that involve standing, walking, and moderate lifting.

Duties and responsibilities:    
•    Receive training in the use of project digitization equipment and workflows and demonstrate effective use of equipment and adherence to project workflows
•    Receive training and consistently demonstrate proper handling of archival materials
•    Consistently produce images that meet the project quality standards
•    Maintain an average image production rate exceeding 15 images per hour billed
•    Review images for consistency and quality
•    Post process images to meet file naming and formatting standards
•    Prepare images for transfer to third-party platform
•    Describe digitized objects by using contextual information gleaned from field notebooks 
•    Continually track progress and log daily production metrics
•    Coordinate and communicate with BRIT staff to ensure efficient, effective processes for receiving, imaging, and returning archival materials
•    Physically arranging materials, rehousing as needed, and creating a collection finding aid
•    Monitoring image production, performing quality control of images and metadata, and communicating project progress to supervisor

Required education and experience:    
•    Master’s in Library and/or Information Science from an ALA-accredited program
•    Proficiency with Google Workspace, particularly Google Sheets
•    Fluency with computers and familiarity with databases
•    Familiarity with Dublin Core and Darwin Core
•    Experience handling, arranging, describing, and digitizing archival collections
•    Familiarity with Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) and Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

Additional eligibility qualifications:
•    Ability to read cursive
•    Proficiency and experience with digital photography, including tethered camera-capture software such as Capture One and/or photo editing software
•    Familiarity with FADGI image standards for color accuracy and imaging quality metrics
•    Strong problem solving and critical thinking skills
•    Strong attention to detail
•    Desire to attain professional knowledge in library and information science
•    Independent thinking and ability to work both alone and with others

BRIT Library strongly encourages applications from candidates who are members of groups underrepresented in careers related to libraries, museums, and archives.

To apply, please submit required documents on the Project Archivist application form here.