Community Archivist

Cold Lake First Nations; City of Cold Lake; On-site; CAD 40,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is looking for a meticulous Community Archivist Assistant to join their Archives Program. This role is vital for preserving the Nation's culture and history through organized management of documentary records. The successful candidate will enjoy a structured work environment, focusing on cataloguing and improving accessibility to archival materials. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the long-term preservation of important cultural heritage while working within a dedicated team. If you are passionate about history and archives, this role is perfect for you.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required in a related field.
• Experience in archival assistance or research is ideal.

Responsibilities

• Assemble, preserve, and catalogue historical information and collections.
• Implement archival projects and improve storage conditions.

Skills

Research Skills

Critical Thinking

Detail Oriented

Computer Skills

Organizational Ability

Education

Bachelor's degree in humanities, law, library science, history, or archival science

Tools

Access databases

Job description

Reports To: Consultation Manager

Job Purpose:

Cold Lake First Nations possesses a collection of documentary records important to understanding and preserving the Nation's culture, history, and language. CLFN has begun an Archives Program to ensure these records are managed properly for the long-term benefit of the Nation. CLFN is seeking an organized, meticulous, and focused individual who thrives on working independently and bringing order to chaos. The ideal person will be passionate about creating a strong foundation for ensuring CLFN’s archival collections are accessible for the future by methodically applying standard operating procedures to organize the Nation’s vast collection of documentary heritage.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Community Archivist Assistant will:

• Assemble, preserve, catalogue, describe and manage historical information, images, maps and other collections in consideration of the following.

• • The provenance, significance and value of records and collections.
  • The longevity and accessibility of records for future generations.
  • CLFN’s Archives Policies and standard operating procedures.
  • Canadian Archival Standards and Rules for Archival Description.
  • Advice from professional archivists and archives experts.
• Implement CLFN’s 2025 Lue Chok Tue Archives: Increasing Awareness of and Access to Cold Lake First Nations Documentary Heritage project funded by Library and Archives Canada Documentary Heritage Communities Program.
• Participate in CLFN’s 2025 Archives Feasibility Study.
• Improve storage conditions for CLFN’s archival materials by obtaining and erecting shelving and ensuring all boxes and materials are up off the floor of the storage facility.
• Report weekly on progress in accessioning and cataloguing collections in order of priority.
• Consult with your manager, team members and other CLFN personnel to determine the importance, origin and history of the material and records that are part of CLFN’s collections.
• Obtain advice from Archives consultants and experts as needed to carry out these duties effectively.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required:

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in the humanities, law, library science, history, archival science or a related field is required.
• Relevant experience such as working part-time, as an intern or through volunteering as an archival assistant or researcher in collection management, exhibit design, research or restoration would be ideal.
• Higher Level Reading Comprehension: being able to not only decode the literal meaning of text in written documents but to make inferences and synthesize with previous experience/knowledge to draw accurate conclusions about the meaning and significance of the text.
• Research Skills: systematically gather and document information relevant to understanding the importance, origin and history of documents / materials, etc.
• Critical Thinking and analytical skills: evaluate importance and identify categories and key information for description and cataloguing of records / documents.
• Meticulous and Detail oriented:Archivists must methodically and accurately process and manage large amounts of materials and records following standardized procedures.
• Computer skills:Access databases and other electronic management tools, so computer skills are vital.
• Writing: prepare accurate textual descriptions of archival records and written progress reports.
• Organizational ability: Archivists need to store documents and records in a way that’s easily retrievable, using logical systems that can be used by others.
• Technical skills: Much historical material needs to be analyzed and preserved, this means using the right chemicals and techniques according to the type of material such as a painting, documents, pottery or fabrics.
• Goal Oriented: strong drive to ensure progress and meet deadlines.

Working Conditions and/or Physical Requirements:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am – 4:30pm, Friday 8:30am – 2:00pm. (37.5 hrs/week)
• Sitting for long periods indoors.
• Lifting and moving boxes up to 10 lbs.
• Handling material manually.
• Typing on a computer keyboard and making repetitive motions