Digital Archivist

Description

Harvard Art Museums' increased use of technology has generated a wealth of digital content. The Digital Archivist provides leadership, strategic planning, and management of this content. The Digital Archivist is responsible for the long term preservation, organization, and distribution of the museums' digitized and born-digital material. The Digital Archivist works closely with the museums' Media Resources department and the Collections Information and Database Specialist to create a sustainable system to meet these goals. The incumbent also works across Harvard University departments to meet our shared goals of preservation and dissemination of digital materials.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Research, plan, propose and implement systems for the management of the Art Museums' digital material ensuring effective acquisition, appraisal, deposit, description, persistence, and interoperability for all digital objects.
• Research and import comprehensive audio, visual, multimedia, and textual digital materials related to the Art Museums' collection, exhibitions, publications, public programs, etc.
• Organize, catalogue, and classify existing digitized and born-digital materials for use internally and externally.
• Prepare digital files for depositing in the Harvard Digital Repository and the Art Museums' digital archive.
• Create procedures and protocols, train museum staff, and establish a sustainable workflow for the digital archive infrastructure.
• Create, propose and execute a plan for periodic auditing of the archive that ensures the long-term persistence and usability of the digital material.
• Work with museums and university staff to ensure that the digital archive is used to its highest potential-widely disseminated to the public, universities, libraries, archivists, scholars and museum professionals.
• Work with museums and University IT staff to plan the installation, upgrades, and maintenance of digital archive and asset management systems.
• Configure digital archive software, manage user accounts, and control access.
• Maintain a thorough and up-to-date understanding of digital file formats, electronic records management, and digital persistence practice and theory.
• Work collaboratively and independently across a wide spectrum of staff.
• Demonstrate a deep curiosity and problem solving capacity with unfamiliar technology and rapidly changing environments.

Basic Qualifications:

• Master's degree from an ALA accredited program with a concentration in information science, archives management, library science or comparable program, or Bachelor's degree in a related field and 2-3 years of relevant experience, or 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Thorough knowledge of and experience with digital asset management systems, hosted or cloud-based platforms.

Additional Qualifications:

• Thorough knowledge of metadata schemas and standards; experience with metadata standards such as METS and PREMIS as well as familiarity with archival description including VRA Core, CDWA, EBU Core and NISO mix.
• Demonstrated knowledge of digital archives, electronic record management, and digital preservation practice. Knowledge of archival management practices of time based media, born-digital complex objects, and digitally constructed multi-layered projects. Some experience programming with languages like PHP and Python, application automation, and data manipulation languages like SQL. TMS experience is a plus. Museum experience is a plus. Demonstrated ability to be self-motivated, to work independently, and to work in a collaborative environment. Excellent written and verbal skills.

Pre-Employment Screening:

• Criminal
• Identity

Application Information
Contact: Please submit your resume and cover letter on line:
Harvard University
Online App. Form: https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGWEbHost/jobdetails.aspx?partnerID=25240&siteI D=5341&AReq=30181BR