Elma Lewis Digital Project Assistant

Northeastern University•Boston, MA

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Northeastern University Library is hiring part-time assistants for a grant-funded project supported by Boston’s Community Preservation Department. The project, Black Art and Joy in Boston (and Beyond): Elma Lewis and the National Center of Afro-American Artists, focuses on digitizing, cataloging, and publishing materials from four archival collections documenting the life and legacy of Elma Lewis (1921–2004). These collections include her personal papers, as well as records from the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, the National Center of Afro-American Artists, and its museum, highlighting her work to promote Afrocentric visual and performing arts. Part-time assistants will contribute to the descriptive work for the Elma Lewis collections, with assignments determined by project priorities. The assistant will work within the highly collaborative Digital Production Services department and also partner with staff from Archives and Special Collections.

Requirements

Some experience with metadata creation
Demonstrated interest in inclusive cataloging and reparative description
Strong attention to detail
Ability to thrive in a collaborative environment

Nice To Haves

Enrollment in an American Library Association (ALA)-accredited Master of Library Science (MLS) or Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), or equivalent experience
Professional experience with metadata schemas and item-level archival cataloging
Experience using Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), Dublin Core, or Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
Familiarity with authority files and controlled vocabularies, such as Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF), and Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
Knowledge of controlled vocabularies and thesauri
Exposure to inclusive and reparative description principles
Proven ability to work independently
Strong communication skills

Responsibilities

Catalog textual materials in spreadsheets according to departmental standards and project-specific instructions from the Project Librarian
Perform post-production processing of digitized texts
Assist with automated captioning workflows for audiovisual materials
Develop contextual documentation about the people, places, and objects represented in the collections