Archivist

Type: Full time exempt, 40 hours a week Location: San Antonio, TX, it may be possible to work some hours from home, but this position requires in-person availability

Salary Range: $50,000-60,000

Benefits: Eligible

Reports to: Executive Director

The Archivist will provide leadership, vision, and direction in overseeing the MACRI’s small physical collection of archival materials, as well as lead MACRI’s efforts to establish a digital archive portal to collect and make publicly available primary resources related to Mexican American civil rights history. The online archive’s primary audience will be K-12 teachers and students, and will prioritize post-custodial collections from both established archives and personal family collections. The Archivist must be able to cultivate and develop relationships with established archives and families with relevant collections. This position may occasionally require travel and work on evenings and weekends.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Designs and manages digital collections by establishing the metadata schema, controlled vocabularies, and exercising quality control of the software, equipment and metadata records.
• Creates policies and procedures for managing MACRI’s archive, including ingest, storage, preservation, organization, description, and access.
• Helps to ensure the accessibility of the digital resources by determining the appropriate intellectual organization and digital storage structure, analyzing the intellectual content of the source material, and conducting historical research for the preparation of metadata descriptions.
• Helps to preserve the intellectual and artifactual value of physical archival material by determining the need for performing conservation procedures such as, document cleaning, repair, deacidification, and humidification.
• Provides access to archival collections by compiling finding aids, creating collection-level records or metadata descriptions, creating finding aids or controlled vocabularies to assist online researchers, and maintaining a database on collections and storage space allocation.
• Initiates and perpetuates collection development activities by maintaining donor contacts, conducting field surveys, appraising potential collections, and acquiring/accessioning collections which meet MACRI’s collection development policies.
• Promotes knowledge and use of the collections by making presentations, talks, and/or interviews to the media, library groups, historical societies, and elementary through college classes.
• Collaborates with the Executive Director tom incorporate archival holdings into MACRI’s exhibits
• Contributes to MACRI’s success by performing other duties as assigned.
• Oversee administration and preservation of born-digital and digitized collection assets.
• Applies professional digital curation practices and national and international standards for existing and ongoing acquisition of born-digital collection holdings with a focus on long-term preservation and access. 2
• Establishes guidelines and workflows in collaboration with archives staff for accessioning, arrangement, description, access, and preservation of digital records, including but not limited to still and moving images; textual materials; and sound recordings
• Work with online archive partners to identify appropriate material for the portal
• Collaborate with Development Manager on grants to support the archival work
• Manage budgets for archival activities; • Serve as backup spokesperson for the organization
• Represent the MACRI Archives at associated conferences and national meetings.

Qualifications

• MLIS Degree with a concentration in Archives.
• Society of American Archivists Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) Certification is preferred.
• A minimum of two years of experience in processing digital archival collections, including experience in creating metadata descriptions, digitization, and care of born-digital materials.
• Effective interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills are required.
• Familiarity with cataloging, various computer applications, and establishing metadata descriptions required.
• Experience in outreach activities is preferred.
• Familiarity with archival collection management databases
• Experience in RFP and vendor selection processes.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with outside partners.
• Knowledge of standards, best practices, and principles in the fields of digital technologies, digital asset management, digital curation, digital forensics, metadata standards, information architecture, as well as the ability and desire to continue cultivating his or her expertise in these areas.
• Knowledge of tools and software used to capture, manage, and deliver born-digital records, and ability to explore and assess tools for their suitability for the Archives’ portal.
• A high degree of technical facility, and the demonstrated ability to learn new technical skills through research and self-study.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to develop and maintain cooperative, professional relationships with archive staff and colleagues at other repositories.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to assist with teaching staff and contractors engaged in digitization and digital preservation tasks when necessary.
• Ability to speak, read, and/or write in Spanish a plus.

About MACRI Launched in 2019, the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI) is an emerging national museum and archive dedicated to preserving and disseminating Mexican American civil rights history. Based in San Antonio, Texas, we have an ambitious plan to shine a national spotlight on San Antonio as a national destination to learn about Mexican American civil rights history, including not only our rich local history as the birthplace of many significant Mexican American civil rights organizations and leaders, but also the larger national story of Mexican American civil rights endeavors across the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the New South, and beyond. We plan to grow MACRI into a national center housing significant historical archives and collections, preserving the legacy of Mexican American civil rights endeavors for generations to come, and offering an unparalleled opportunity for the public to learn about this vital history.