Archives Technician

Smithsonian Institution•Suitland, MD

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), NMAI's Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, MD. More than one selection may be made from this announcement. The Archives Technician is responsible for assisting with the arrangement, description, preservation, cataloging and access to NMAI's moderately large archival collections.

Requirements

Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation
May need to complete a Probationary Period
Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.
Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.
One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-06 level in the Federal Service.
Specialized experience is defined as working on archival arrangement, preservation, and description of manuscript, photo, and audiovisual (AV) collections; using archive management systems (Archivists’ Toolkit, ArchivesSpace, Archon, etc.), providing reference service to archival researchers, and executing basic administrative tasks (i.e., arranging travel for staff and preparing small purchase orders).
Must have experience working with AV collections including identifying formats, inspecting, cleaning, splicing, rehousing, and describing audiovisual collections.
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social).
Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.
You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience.
Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

Nice To Haves

1 Full year of graduate level education or Superior Academic Achievements
Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications.
For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards.
If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study.
For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

Responsibilities

Assist the Head Archivist and Archive Center staff in the physical collections management of a wide range of archival materials including but not limited to papers, photographs, film, video, and sound recordings.
Be responsible for tracking, rehousing and storing of archival collections; monitoring temperature, relative humidity and storage condition; conducting archival collection inventories, surveys, reorganizing and refiling collections materials among other duties related to the care, preservation and management of archival collections.
Process new and legacy archival collections, apply basic preservation methods including removing damaging residue or attachments; rehousing documents in acid free folders and containers; and identifying and maintaining a running list of fragile materials that require preservation treatment and digitization.
Describe archival materials for both new acquisitions and unprocessed legacy collections. The description includes well-written and concise finding aids and collection level records entered in Archivists’ Toolkit system in accordance with archival descriptive standards including DACS.
Prepare small purchase orders to secure supplies and services from outside vendors.
Work on administrative and program support tasks including arranging travel for staff and contracted consultants, including scheduling transportation, making hotel reservations, supporting staff en route and preparing travel authorizations and vouchers.
Assist the Reference Archivist in providing reference and research services both onsite and remotely, to the public, Native American communities and constituents, researchers, and Smithsonian staff.
Assists on-site researchers in the Archive Center reading room by identifying appropriate collections, pulling items, assisting in their use, and refiling them.
Answers staff and public inquiries by performing necessary research about archival holdings and responding in a detailed manner via email, phone or letter.