Senior Archivist

Digital Library Federation; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 78,000 - 86,000; Full time

Job summary

Barnard College's Barnard Archives and Special Collections seeks a Senior Archivist to lead processing, reference, and outreach efforts. The role guides student staff and collaborates across departments, with primary in-person work and occasional remote flexibility.

The Senior Archivist arranges and describes records, publishes finding aids in ArchivesSpace, and supports digitization projects. Strong communication and instructional skills are essential for campus partners and researchers.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in library and information science or equivalent.
• 5–7 years of archival or related experience with instruction, reference, programming, and/or outreach.

Responsibilities

• Provides in-person and remote reference and research support to a diverse range of students, scholars, and visitors.
• Coordinates activities in the reading room, including researcher and classroom visits.
• Supports imaging services, including on-demand and project-based digitization.
• With the Director, provides introductory primary source instruction sessions orienting students and faculty.
• Contributes to compiling statistics about archival collections and their use.

Skills

Archival processing

Reference & instruction

Team collaboration

Digital preservation

Oral & written communication

Rights administration

Education

Master’s degree in library and information science

Tools

ArchivesSpace

Archipelago

Islandora

Archive-It

DACS

MARC

LCSH

LCNA

Job description

Senior Archivist

Reporting to the Director of Archives and Special Collections within the Barnard Library, the Senior Archivist processes, or facilitates the processing of archival collections, serves as the first point of contact for reference services, and coordinates activities in the Barnard Archives and Special Collections reading room. Working in a team environment, the Senior Archivist provides guidance to undergraduate and graduate student staff engaged in archival work.This position is primarily in-person, with flexibility for remote work as needed.

Job Description

Essential Duties

Reference & Instruction Support

• Provides in-person and remote reference and research support to a diverse range of students, scholars, and visitors.
• Coordinates activities in the reading room, including researcher and classroom visits.
• Supports imaging services, including on-demand and project-based digitization.
• With the Director, provides introductory primary source instruction sessions that orient students and faculty to the Archives and to archival research in general.
• Contributes to compiling statistics about archival collections and their use.

Processing & Description

• Arranges and describes archival records in all formats in accordance with established archival theory and standards.
• Publishes and edits finding aids in Barnard’s archival discovery platform (ArchivesSpace).
• Catalogs and publishes digitized historical materials in Barnard’s Digital Collections platform (Archipelago).

Accessioning & Records Transfer

• Periodically appraises and accessions institutional records, in accordance with existing records retention and disposition schedules, and in collaboration with the Office of General Counsel (OGC), the President’s Office, BCIT, Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE), and other stakeholders.
• With the Director, educates campus partners on identifying and saving institutional records of enduring historical value for transfer to the Archives as needed.
• With the Director, assists in accessioning manuscripts and personal papers from sources external to the college.

Skills, Qualifications & Requirements:

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Expertise in archival accessioning, processing, and description practices, and experience with managing complex processing projects or programs.
• Experience with archival management software such as ArchivesSpace; digital collections software such as Archipelago or Islandora; web archiving software such as Archive-It; and other archival platforms.
• Experience with library and archival descriptive and content standards, including DACS, EAD, MARC, LCSH, and LCNA.
• Experience with processing digital materials, and digital preservation.
• Experience performing archival reference and ability to work with a diverse range of students and other scholars.
• Knowledge of rights administration and management issues for archival collections.
• Flexibility and demonstrated ability to work collaboratively.
• Demonstrated enthusiasm and strategies for making archives collections more broadly accessible.
• Demonstrated critical analysis of archives or the archives profession
• Evidence of effective oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in library and information science or equivalent program.
• 5-7 years of experience with archival or related work, including experience with instruction, reference, programming, and/or outreach.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a university, college, cultural heritage institution, non-profit, or comparable setting.
• Experience teaching archival workshops in an academic environment
• Experience supervising student staff.

Salary Range: $78,000 - $86,000 The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the College's good faith and reasonable estimateof the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Company: Barnard College Time Type: Full time