Manuscript Archivist
Columbia College Chicago is an acclaimed undergraduate and graduate institution that provides a comprehensive education in the arts, communications and public relations. We constantly aim to reach our full potential as an educational innovator, incubator of new creative practice and generator of real-world success for young creatives. We are located in the heart of Chicago, across the street from historic Grant Park, and housed in some of the most iconic buildings in the South Loop.
Columbia College Chicago a private urban institution of over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students, four-year College offering a distinctive curriculum that blends liberal arts, creative and media arts and business is currently searching for a Manuscript Archivist.
Columbia College Chicago actively promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion as vitally important to its present and future success. These principles are essential to the educational experiences of our students, staff, and faculty.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Manuscript Archivist is is responsible for processing and organizing the manuscript holdings of the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) Collections and the manuscript collections housed in the College Archives & Special Collections (CASPC), and through research and discovery, connect the manuscript collections to institutional, local, and international history. This position supports access to and preservation of archival rare and unique resources through physical and digital arrangement and intellectual description. This position reports to the Head of Archives & Special Collections.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
- Process, arrange, and describe manuscript collections in all media and formats according to archival best practices and standards with demonstrated expertise in using EAD (Encoded Archival Description) and DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard).
- Accession, prepare processing plans, arrange, describe, and preserve manuscript materials in accordance with professional standards and practices.
- Provide oversight of student workers and/or interns working on manuscript collections.
- Create metadata records for files and images according to Dublin Core-based metadata standards.
- Communicate with donors about collection usage
- Evaluate and recommend new collection additions to the appropriate campus archival advisory group.
- Provide reference and public service engagement to the college community, the public, scholars, composers, and performers.
- Advocate and promote the use of manuscript collections into broader institutional and community environments through collaboration, engagement, and infrastructure development.
- Contribute to the creation of policies, procedures, workflows, and standards compliance in archival description and digital projects.
- Engage in archival reference services to answer patron questions: in-person, online, or by telephone.
- Collaborate with archival staff and college faculty to facilitate primary material instruction in the classroom, including the creation of worksheets and exercises designed to meet class objectives and outcomes.
- Serve as liaison to academic departments and/or local consortia groups as needed.
- Participate in College life, including Library initiatives, and in local, state, and national professional activities.
- Perform other related duties and/or responsibilities as assigned or required.
Qualifications
- Master’s degree in library/information science from an ALA-accredited graduate program with specialization in archives and two years’ experience working in an archives or special collections unit.
- Demonstrated experience in archival processing, arrangement, and description for archival media and formats according to relevant archival best practices and standards. Expertise in using archival standards, and extensive hands-on experience with archival processing, conducting such duties fluidly between physical and digital materials.
- Demonstrated experience with archives data and description standards, including EAD/EAC, DACS and experience with metadata standards, including Dublin Core, LCSH, LCNA, AAT and other vocabularies/taxonomies.
- Knowledge of the history, theory, and best practices relating to materials found in special collections research libraries, including audio-visual material in all formats.
- General subject-area knowledge of music, ability to read and interpret musical manuscripts, and familiarity with the broad range of black music styles and traditions included in the CBMR collections.
- Ability to read cursive, draft, and handwritten materials
- Knowledge of the process of historical and cultural research, including the ability to analyze primary source material and relate contextually within collections.
- Demonstrated experience with Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Creative Suite and experience with digital imaging hardware and software.
- Ability to recognize and deal with confidential information according to Archives and College policies, local, state, and federal laws and archival professional standards, and maintain confidentiality.
- Understanding of copyright/intellectual property issues in archival collections.
- Ability to work and multitask effectively within a busy team environment.
- Experience in providing reference services to patrons and researchers.
- Detail-oriented and capable of completing tasks accurately and efficiently, able to work independently with great attention to detail.
- Excellent written and oral communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to adapt and work with a diverse research and donor population, members of the College community and outside researchers.
- Ability to lift 40 pounds and work in an environment in which exposure to materials containing dust and mold is likely.
- ArchivesSpace and Digital Commons experience preferred.
- Experience with instruction in primary material literacy preferred.
This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee and is subject to change based on the needs of the department and/or college.
At Columbia, we offer a rewarding work environment for our faculty and staff. We take pride in offering competitive benefits with affordable health, dental and vision coverage; flexible spending accounts; commuter benefit program, life and accidental, death & dismemberment coverage; paid and unpaid leave options; work/life benefits; educational assistance programs; and retirement and financial planning benefits.
We invite you to join our talented faculty and staff and become part of our collective aspiration to ensure Columbia prepares students for success in their creative fields through innovation, engagement and real-world experiences.
Additional Information
- Position subject to a background screening.
- This is a union position.
- This position is overtime ineligible.
Qualified candidates of diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
We seek individuals with a demonstrated ability to work with students, faculty and staff from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds. All employees are expected to advance the College’s DEI mission. For more information on the office of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion please visit: colum.edu/diversity.
Columbia College Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all local, state, and federal laws and regulations concerning civil rights. The college does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law.
PLEASE APPLY THOUGH THE COLUMBIA CAREERS PAGE: https://colum.taleo.net/careersection/jobdetail.ftl?job=2100006O&lang=en