Part-time Project Archivist

About the position Historic New England (HNE) seeks a Project Archivist to assist with the cataloguing and intellectual accessibility of 125,000 glass-plate and film negatives for inclusion in “Capturing New England: Digitizing Historic New England’s Negative Collection,” a project funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. This is a remote based, part-time position term-limited through December 31, 2026.

Responsibilities

• Works with the project archivist to create collection and item-level cataloguing entries for the 125,000 glass-plate and film negatives and a DACS-compliant (Describing Archives: A Content Standard, second edition) finding aid to the collection in MINISIS, the searchable and publicly accessible online content management system.
• Reviews each digital image and metadata combination conducting a final check for image quality, metadata completeness, and that the two elements are properly matched.
• Works with other project staff to ensure that project is completed on time and within budget.

Requirements

• An ALA-accredited master’s degree in library and information Science or Archival program, or a master’s in history, Architectural History, Art History, or Museum Studies.
• Experience with archival and digital asset management systems. The candidate must be fully competent in the use of computerized collections management systems, such as MINISIS, ArchivesSpace, or Re:Discovery.
• A commitment to access, equity, diversity, and inclusion through remediation of institutional biases inherent in cataloguing metadata.
• Excellent computer and data entry skills and skills in the use of Microsoft Office suite; share drive applications, including Dropbox.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a team environment, where communications within and among teams is essential to success. Ability to interact and communicate with staff orally and in writing is essential.
• High degree of attention to detail and an ability to work independently to effectively manage time, and projects, and meet to deadlines.
• Experience with digitization workflow, preservation, and metadata practices and standards.
• Experience arranging and describing manuscript / archival collections and creating finding aids according to archival best practices. The candidate must have solid knowledge of MARC cataloguing practices, Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and controlled vocabularies such as AAT, TGN, LCSH, and LCNAF.
• Strong belief in, and demonstrated commitment to, Historic New England’s mission and values.
• Commitment to the highest standards of professionalism, excellence, and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA).
• New England residency by start of work required.