Archivist, Digital Archives

Contractual (3 years), full time (35hrs/week) 

Job Summary

The responsibilities of this job include the supervision, coordination and monitoring of the archival collection and projects, and specifically the born-digital archives. The incumbent oversees and develops local practices for managing born-digital material held and acquired by the CCA and assists in the strategic direction of acquisition, preservation, and access to born-digital and paper-based archives and contributes to the curatorial projects related to born digital archives. The incumbent serves as the local manager of Archivematica, and coordinate support and development of the CCA’s digital repository with the IT department and Artefactual Systems. This includes ongoing maintenance and development of the CCA’s homegrown born-digital archives access interface, SCOPE. The incumbent plays a key role in the documentation of archives through the development of standards and procedures, classification and description – and the migration to a new AMS archives management system. The incumbent works closely with the Digital and Publications divisions in developing a digital culture at the CCA.

Key responsibilities

Management of born-digital archives

• Develops and documents practices for the arrangement, description, preservation, and management of born-digital archives in accordance with international standards and best practices
• Plans, prioritizes and reviews the processing of born-digital archives
• Supervises the born-digital projects, including review and approval processing plans and editing archival descriptions
• Collaborates with Reference, the Digital division, and external developers for on-site access to the digital archives
• Collaborates with the Program, Research and Publications divisions in deciphering research material related to born-digital archives and evaluating the relevancy for public concern
• Manages daily use of Artefactual Systems and collaborates with the Information Systems division on the strategic development of CCA’s Archivematica digital preservation system
• Manages daily use of Artefactual Systems and collaborates with the Digital division on the strategic development of CCA’s born-digital archives access interface (SCOPE)
• Manages scripts and software utilities used in appraisal, arrangement, description, and SIP creation on dedicated BitCurator processing workstations
• Supervises implementation of digital forensics tools and techniques for disk imaging of digital storage media

Acquisition of born-digital archives

• Develops CCA’s capacity to responsibly acquire electronic records and papers
• Investigates potential acquisitions and evaluates proposed acquisitions
• Coordinates transfers of digital files from donors, and acting as a liaison between records creators at CCA’s curatorial, archival, preservation and technical staff
• Works directly with records creators to advise on record-keeping practices that will facilitate the eventual transfer of their archives at CCA

Advisory and administrative responsibilities

• Advises CCA staff of the functional requirements for acquiring, accessioning, preserving, arranging, describing, and providing access to (born-digital) archives and train archivists, curators, cataloguers, and interns as necessary
• Prepares, with the archives team, the migration of archival metadata that could be largely related to metadata clean-up of legacy digital archives
• Serves as the Collection Division’s internal and external representative and authority on issues related to (born-digital) archives

Required qualifications

● Education: Master’s degree in library science, archival science, or other relevant field
● Experience: 3-5 years working in an archival repository, including experience working with born-digital archival material
● Ability to work effectively in French and English, or willingness to learn
● Project management experience
● Knowledge of ISAD(G), RAD, DACS, and other archival descriptive standards
● Demonstrated familiarity with data structure standards relevant to the archival control of digital collection materials (EAD, Dublin Core, MODS, METS, PREMIS)
● Demonstrated knowledge of digital preservation standards such as OAIS and Trus tworthy Digital Repositories
● Knowledge of a wide range of computer storage media, file systems, software, and file formats
● Experience applying tools such as Archivematica and BitCurator to process born-digital archives

Other qualifications

● Knowledge in working in Linux and with command-line interfaces or willingness to learn
● Demonstrated experience in reading, using and manipulating born-digital architectural records in common formats and programs (AutoCAD/Revit, VectorWorks, Microstation, Rhino, Maya, etc.)
● Familiarity with programming/scripting languages such as Python, Ruby, and bash or willingness to learn

Please submit your application (resume and cover letter) by email to rh@cca.qc.ca to the attention of Human Resources, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920 rue Baile, Montreal (Quebec) H3H 2S6. The application deadline is 19 July 2020. Only successful applicants will be contacted. Please do not call. The CCA is an equal opportunity employer.

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