DIGITIZATION & DIGITAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATE

University of Alabama at Birmingham; Birmingham (AL); On-site; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is seeking a Digital Services Specialist to support digitization, migration, and metadata work for its digital collections. The role focuses on preserving and enhancing access to material across libraries and archives, within a collaborative lab environment.

Qualified candidates will have a Bachelor’s degree and 3+ years of related experience; an MLIS is preferred. The position emphasizes attention to detail, technical troubleshooting, and ability to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and three (3) years of related experience required. Work experience may NOT substitute for education requirement.
• Related experience may include library and information science, archival studies, information systems, computer science, history, communications, media production, digital humanities, or related disciplines.
• An ALA-accredited MLIS, or current enrollment in an ALA-accredited MLIS program, is preferred.
• Related experience also includes digitization, audiovisual migration, born-digital processing, metadata work, digital collections maintenance, archival or library processing, media editing, data manipulation, technical troubleshooting, workflow documentation, and student employee coordination.

Responsibilities

• Performs a variety of digitization and digital migration services including physical scanning, data extraction, and AV format migration.
• Extracts, prepares, processes, and organizes born-digital materials.
• Processes and packages print and audiovisual materials for online digital access and long-term preservation storage.
• Contributes to the creation, enhancement, and maintenance of metadata for digital and web archives collections, ensuring adherence to established standards and best practices.
• Assists with digital collections maintenance including updating access links, generating image thumbnails, identifying linking issues, and troubleshooting technical issues.
• Assist with reporting on digital services activities, including tracking progress and contributing to department documentation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

Digital imaging

AV digitization

Video editing

Digital asset management

Metadata creation

Data manipulation

Workflow documentation

Technical troubleshooting

Attention to detail

Education

Bachelor's degree

MLIS preferred

Tools

Library systems

Job description

Description

The Digital Services Specialist supports the creation, management, preservation, and accessibility of digital collections by providing a variety of digitization, digital migration, metadata, and digital preservation services. Working within the Digital Services Lab, this position contributes to projects involving the digitization of physical materials, migration of legacy audiovisual formats, processing of born-digital content, and enhancement of metadata that supports discovery and long-term access to digital resources. This position is ideal for an individual with strong technical aptitude, attention to detail, and an interest in digital libraries, archives, cultural heritage collections, or digital preservation. This position offers an opportunity to contribute directly to the preservation and accessibility of unique digital collections that support teaching, learning, research, and community engagement. The successful candidate will gain experience with emerging technologies, digital preservation workflows, metadata standards, and large-scale digital collection initiatives while working in a collaborative and innovative environment.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Performs a variety of digitization and digital migration services including physical scanning, data extraction, and AV format migration.

Extracts, prepares, processes, and organizes born-digital materials.

Processes and packages print and audiovisual materials for online digital access and long-term preservation storage.

Contributes to the creation, enhancement, and maintenance of metadata for digital and web archives collections, ensuring adherence to established standards and best practices.

Assists with digital collections maintenance including updating access links, generating image thumbnails, identifying linking issues, and troubleshooting technical issues.

Assist with reporting on digital services activities, including tracking progress and contributing to department documentation.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree and three (3) years of related experience required. Work experience may NOT substitute for education requirement. Related experience may include library and information science, archival studies, information systems, computer science, history, communications, media production, digital humanities, or related disciplines. An ALA-accredited MLIS, or current enrollment in an ALA-accredited MLIS program, is preferred. Related experience also includes digitization, audiovisual migration, born-digital processing, metadata work, digital collections maintenance, archival or library processing, media editing, data manipulation, technical troubleshooting, workflow documentation, and student employee coordination.

Preferred hard skills include: digital imaging, audiovisual digitization, audio/video editing, digital file management, metadata creation and enhancement, data manipulation, and familiarity with library systems.

Preferred soft skills include: attention to detail, organization, adaptability, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and the ability to learn new technologies and workflows quickly.

UAB is an Equal Employment/Equal Educational Opportunity Institution dedicated to providing equal opportunities and equal access to all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, sex (including pregnancy), genetic information, age, disability, and veteran's status. As required by Title IX, UAB prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity that it operates. Individuals may report concerns or questions to UAB's Assistant Vice President and Senior Title IX Coordinator. The Title IX notice of nondiscrimination is located at uab.edu/titleix.

Primary Location

University

Job Category

Professional & Managerial

Organization

230000000 UAB Libraries

Employee Status

Regular

Shift : Day/1st Shift

Work Arrangement (final schedule to be determined by the department/hiring manager) : Onsite