Digital and Technical Services Archivist [Term-Limited]

ACLU - National Office • New York, NY

18h • Hybrid

About The Position

The ACLU seeks applicants for a full-time 3-year term-limited position of Digital and Technical Services Archivist in the Records & Archives unit of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of three (3) days per week or twelve (12) days per month. Records & Archives reduces risk, creates operational efficiency, and safeguards the historical legacy of ACLU by stewarding data/records through the information lifecycle with a particular focus on records that are no longer in use. We manage the destruction of paper and digital records that are not historically valuable and are no longer in use at ACLU. We set and enforce policies related to how long records are kept, their secure destruction and documentation thereof, according to business needs and state and federal laws and regulations. We set and enforce policies and carry out the day-to-day work of documenting, preserving, and providing access to the ACLU’s historical archives on-site, and we prepare and donate historical material that is open to the public to Princeton University. We also provide research services to all ACLU staff regarding ACLU history. We partner with other teams (e.g., Information Security, Privacy & Data Governance) to ensure that information policies, procedures, and projects meet ACLU standards (e.g, those relating to privacy, security, compliance, access, and risk) and are created and maintained in a collaborative, coordinated way that engages appropriate stakeholders. This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

Requirements

• Significant experience in archives, with relevant experience in technical services and metadata management. Familiarity with creation and maintenance of records groups and local authority records is a plus.
• Significant experience in digital archives, with experience implementing digital preservation infrastructure preferred
• Strong project management and leadership skills
• Excellent communication skills including a spirit of collaboration and the ability to communicate complex concepts to broad audiences and adjust to a diverse set of working styles
• Experience in a variety of archival settings, especially institutional, government, non-profit, or business archives, preferred

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with creation and maintenance of records groups and local authority records is a plus.
• Experience in a variety of archival settings, especially institutional, government, non-profit, or business archives, preferred

Responsibilities

• Develop technology strategy and implementation for the ACLU’s Archives: Oversee the clean-up and transformation of our current Archival Content Management System to fully utilize its capacity to describe our archives and make reference easy. Create a portal for research that engages staff and gives broader access to archives. Create a digital archival program for historically significant records that allows staff to easily access past assets.
• Lead the creation of a digital preservation program for ACLU: Conduct a digital preservation assessment of the ACLU’s current holdings and future collecting needs. Create an assessment of digital preservation solutions for ACLU. With Director and Manager, create a roadmap for implementating of digital preservation solution. Manage the implementation of selected digital preservation system including: Creating and document metadata schemas for digital archives. Create and document protocols for digital transfer and processing. Ensure that digital preservation protocols are implemented, documented, and maintained for our archival digital assets.
• Develop data strategy, standards, and practices for Records & Archives: Using appropriate standards, develop and manage consistent metadata schemas and controlled vocabularies for various systems (archival content management system, digital preservation applications, digital asset management systems, etc.). Determine ways to leverage and clean up legacy description and metadata. Develop a new record group schema to describe and classify archival material. Ensure control and consistency in the quality of our metadata. Create a data management strategy and schemas to ensure consistency and usability in the ACLU's complex data and technology environment as the organization implements new records management and compliance systems.
• Oversee digital archives processing: Document workflows developed for ingesting and accessioning digital materials and other digital preservation actions and cross-train current Records & Archives staff on those workflows. Develop plans to ingest non-standard digital objects (i.e.our website, social media, etc.) to our collections. In collaboration with Manager, plan and manage digital processing projects for Processing Archivist. Cross-train Processing Archivist to successfully process digital collections.
• Collaborate with other teams: Information management support for active records in legal department to ensure easy access and eventual disposition to archives. Represent archives as a stakeholder in the ACLU’s Records Management technology strategy and implementation. Represent archives as a stakeholder in other ACLU technology infrastructure projects as assigned.
• Other projects as assigned

Benefits

• generous paid time-off policy
• comprehensive healthcare benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
• 401k plan and employer match
• annual professional development funds
• internal professional development programs and workshops

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees