Vacancy for Digital Preservation Archivist at the British Film Institute

Digital Preservation Coalition; Berkhamsted; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

The British Film Institute seeks a Digital Preservation Archivist to join their Data & Digital Preservation department until March 2026. This role is vital in preserving and documenting born-digital archives, ensuring effective workflows are designed and implemented for current and legacy digital formats while working collaboratively with colleagues and donors.

Qualifications

• Experience in digital preservation with born digital material.
• Experience transferring data from physical and cloud storage.
• Proven ability to create workflows for digital archives.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and maintain digital preservation workflows.
• Work with archivists to understand digital materials.
• Contribute to metadata standard implementation.

Skills

Digital preservation

Workflow development

Metadata standards

Data transfer

Job description

Vacancy for Digital Preservation Archivist at the British Film Institute

20 May 2024

BFI National Archive, Berkhamsted. We operate a hybrid working model at the BFI. This role requires 4 working days per month at the Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

Fixed Term

We are looking for a Digital Preservation Archivist to join the BFI’s Data & Digital Preservation department on a fixed term basis until 31 March 2026.

This position is part of the BFI’s newly launched Our Screen Heritage project, which aims to update the BFI National Archive—the UK’s national collection of moving image—by acquiring and preserving the story of moving image in the digital/online era, reflecting the diversity and richness of contemporary Britain today.

The Digital Preservation Archivist will focus on developing, implementing, maintaining, and documenting digital preservation and access workflows and policies for born digital document archives collected via acquisitions from Special Collections Archivists or Digital Archivists.

Key responsibilities include:

• Work with Special Collections Archivists and collections donors to create a shared understanding of the digital materials in scope for collecting and design effective digital preservation workflows for those materials.
• Contribute to the development of digital preservation workflows for born-digital document archives, perform quality assurance, and test new or proposed workflows.
• Contribute to the selection and implementation of relevant digital preservation metadata standards and create metadata in line with those standards.
• Undertake transfer of data from physical devices such as computer hard drives, optical disks, and flash drives, ensuring lossless transfer and compliance with BFI National Archive cybersecurity policies.

We are looking for candidates who have:

• Experience working in a digital preservation context with born digital material in current and legacy digital formats.
• Experience transferring data from physical devices and cloud-based storage solutions for long-term digital preservation.
• Proven ability to create digital preservation workflows for born digital document archives.
• Knowledge of digital preservation standards and experience implementing them in good practice workflows.