Archivist (Project Management)

The Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at The University of Oklahoma, Norman, is seeking qualified applicants for a professional archivist position in the center's congressional archives. The archivist is responsible to the senior archivist for the administration and development of the Center's congressional archives and the Kanter Political Commercial Collection. The archivist helps lead the continuing development of the archives' programs, employing professional standards to establish and implement policies and procedures for the management of physical, born-digital, and digitized materials, which include manuscript collections and political commercials acquired by the Center. The role also coordinates and supervises student intern(s), student employees and graduate assistants, and oversees the physical processing and ingestion of commercial collections at Burton Hall and the Center's off-site warehouse.

Essential Duties:

• Responsible for the technical supervision, management and maintenance of collections and archival material.
• Identifies, prepares, tags, and catalogs specimens, manuscripts, archival material and other special collections.
• Provides metadata creation and management support for grant-funded special collections projects as needed.
•  Implements and monitors approved collection policies.
• Maintains archival areas.
• Coordinates and develops educational and outreach programs and speaks to local, state, and national groups.  
• Assumes responsibility for credited student internships.
• Manages access to collections, assuring quality professional service to students, staff, faculty, and researchers.
• Responds to inquiries regarding collections. 
• Devises, implements, and monitors security and safety procedures including disaster preparedness.
• Maintains fire safety standards.
• Arranges and describes manuscript collections in accordance with established archival standards.
• Prepares inventories of records and manuscript collections acquired.  
• Creates and maintains accession records for manuscript collections.
• Collects, compiles, and delivers information and data for statistical and narrative reports. 
• Assists in grant proposal preparation.
• Identifies collections, materials, and individual items in need of preservation treatment and performs routine preservation applications to paper items and occasional artifacts.
• May supervise student workers and staff.
• Performs various duties as needed to successfully fulfill the function of the position.

Required Education and Experience: Bachelor's Degree, AND:

• 24 months of related experience in archival arrangement and/or records management.

Equivalency/Substitution: Will accept 48 months of related experience in lieu of the Bachelor's degree for a total of 72 months of related experience.

Skills:

• Ability to communicate well and build rapport quickly with students, faculty, and staff
• Current museum, archive or library experience
• Must have strong ability to lead project teams
• Knowledge of automated storage and retrieval systems, and electronic records

Certifications:

• Valid Driver's License

Working Conditions:

• Physical:
  • Ability to engage in repetitive motion.  
  • Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs. 
  • Climb ladders.
• Environment:
  • Standard office environment.  
  • Ability to work independently and in teams.
  • Ability to tolerate exposure to occasional dust and/or mold.

Departmental Preferences:

• MLS from an ALA-accredited library school or an advanced related degree.
• An attitude of energy, initiative, innovation, drive, and team-orientation
• Outward-facing, user-centered service orientation
• Experience in an archives or special collections department in a research library or similar setting.
• Experience supervising and/or mentoring students and other employees.
• Experience accessioning or processing archival and manuscript materials, either analog or born-digital.
• Experience transferring content from legacy media such as hard drives, floppy disks and zip disks, including creating disk images.
• Knowledge of strategies developed or adopted by the archival community for managing born-digital archival material, including digital forensic software and processes.
• Experience with tools and software used to capture, manage, and deliver born-digital records, including web archiving activities and tools.
• A high degree of technical facility, experience working in command line interfaces, and the demonstrated ability to learn new technical skills through research and self-study.
• Knowledge of relevant standards for archival description and preservation including DACS, EAD,  and PREMIS, and familiarity with other metadata standards.
• Experience with XSLT, Xpath, Xquery and one or more general scripting languages such as Python, Bash or Perl.
• Experience with MODS.
• Experience with archival collections management tools such as ArchivesSpace.
• Experience implementing MPLP-influenced or Accessioning-As-Processing workflows
• Exemplary goal-orientation and self-management abilities
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a technologically sophisticated and rapidly changing environment
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships

Supervision: 1-2 undergraduate student hourly; 1-2 graduate student, student intern(s)

Special Instructions: If you are selected as a final candidate for this position, you will be subject to The University of Oklahoma Norman Campus Tuberculosis Testing policy. To view the policy, visit https://hr.ou.edu/Policies-Handbooks/TB-Testing.

Why You Belong at the University of Oklahoma: The University of Oklahoma fosters an inclusive culture of respect and civility, belonging, and access, which are essential to our collective pursuit of excellence and our determination to change lives. The unique talents, perspectives, and experiences of our community enrich the learning, and working environment at OU, inspiring us to harness our innovation, creativity, and collaboration for the advancement of people everywhere.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement: The University of Oklahoma, in compliance with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, age, religion, disability, political beliefs, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices, or procedures. This includes, but is not limited to, admissions, employment, financial aid, housing, services in educational programs or activities, and health care services that the University operates or provides.