Proprietors of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn-posted about 2 months ago
Full-time • Mid Level
Cambridge, MA
101-250 employees

Mount Auburn Cemetery seeks a highly organized, self-motivated, and collaborative leader for a full-time position. The Digital Archivist role will be on the ground floor of creating a digital archival repository for Mount Auburn and will serve as a key team player to support the planning and execution of a cemetery-wide digital business transformation initiative. They will manage the long-term stewardship and preservation of Mount Auburn’s born-digital assets and digital facsimiles while working to ensure their accessibility and usability. The Digital Archivist will assist the Curator in advising the Cemetery on preservation of digital assets, problem solving, decision making, and processing tasks and projects. They will serve as liaison with colleagues in the Historical Collections & Archives, IT, and Cemetery Services, as well as across other departments within the Cemetery. They will oversee appraisal, processing, preparation, and ingestion of files for permanent preservation and online access; create efficient workflows for metadata creation and enhancement; and provide subject matter expertise in integrating the digital collection with other tools. Candidates should demonstrate experience in the broad range of digital document processing tasks, essential knowledge of archival preservation principles and practices, and familiarity with digital asset preservation solutions. To succeed in this role, candidates must have effective interpersonal and communication skills, an appreciation of diverse stakeholder perspectives, and make decisions that align with the institutional goals of the Cemetery.

  • Assists Curator in determining policies and procedures for the curation and stewardship of digital materials according to professional standards and scalable and sustainable methods.
  • Ingests digital records and accompanying metadata into an archival digital preservation repository, Preservica.
  • Assists in selecting, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting hardware and software used for accessioning, processing, and preservation workflows.
  • Coordinates with internal and external stakeholders to maintain the flow of digital collections throughout accessioning and processing workflows and project lifecycles. Collaborates with partners within the Historical Collections & Archives, Cemetery, Services, IT, and beyond regarding education and outreach to promote the use of digital collections according to best practices.
  • May supervise other staff such as catalogers, data managers, archives volunteers, and academic interns.
  • Accessions, and processes born-digital materials and records that have been changed into a digital format. Creates accession records and finding aids for digital archives.
  • As a leader in digital preservation, engages in regional and national communities, integrating best and emerging practices.
  • Provides support and completes tasks as needed within the Historical Collections & Archives Department.
  • MLS or MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited library school or equivalent accredited degree, required.
  • Demonstrated experience of 2-4 years in managing cultural heritage digitization and digital asset preservation.
  • In-depth knowledge of and displayed interest in the digital preservation environment.
  • Training in current archival and preservation theory and practice.
  • Experience in archives, information science, computing, digital archiving, preservation, and electronic records management.
  • Strong knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite of software tools, particularly Excel.
  • Experience with scripting for process automation, with Python experience strongly preferred.
  • Working experience with structured data, digital object standards, and metadata formats, standards, and frameworks (i.e., METS, MODS, ALTO, MARC, IIIF, Dublin Core, etc.).
  • Working knowledge of United States copyright law and fair use.
  • Knowledge of standards and best practices for cultural heritage digitization and digital preservation.
  • Experience reading 19th and 20th-century handwritten documents preferred.
  • Ability to sit and perform desk-based computer tasks.
  • Visual acuity, including color vision.
  • Works with paper documents and books in places that may be dusty and crowded.
  • Frequently twist/bend/stoop/squat, grasp lightly/fine manipulation, grasp forcefully, sort/file paperwork or parts, lift/carry/push/pull objects that weigh up to 15 pounds.
  • Occasionally stand/walk, reach/work above shoulders, writing by hand, climb (stairs, stepstools or other).
  • Operate standard office equipment, including typing with speed and accuracy.
  • Knowledge of current standards and methods for OCR and HTR (including tools such as ABBYY and Transkribus).
  • Knowledge of forensic software to get file count, file size, and file category of collections.
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