The Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) seeks a part-time (20 hrs/week) digital archivist to build the Karen Barker Documentary Archive, a collection of foodways materials that includes audio interviews, films, photographs, artwork, and ephemera.
General Notes
This part-time, contract professional archivist position will preserve, arrange, describe, and deliver born-digital archival materials; process and digitize analog collections; upload digital materials to the SFA Omeka platform, and create finding aids for materials. Most SFA materials are in digital format; others will need to be digitized. This is a donor-funded position for a minimum of 3 years, with the possibility of becoming a full-time university position (with benefits) if future funding is secured. Most work may be performed remotely, but the employee will need to plan for several trips to Oxford, Mississippi, to attend in-person meetings and scan physical items that are not yet digitized.
Required Application Materials
Resume
Letter of Interest
List of 3 references
Application materials may be sent to marybeth@southernfoodways.org. The deadline to apply is January 8, 2021.
Essential Functions
—Provides strategic planning for the development and infrastructure for the Southern Foodways Alliance Karen Barker Documentary Archive, access systems and tools, digitization, and relating technical issues.
—Crafts policies and procedures that facilitate the acquisition, transfer, arrangement, description, preservation, and access to born-digital and analog materials in accordance with emerging standards and best practices, consulting with and advising creators of born-digital content when necessary.
—Develops and documents workflows in order to support these activities; recommends and utilizes digital processing tools and advises on preservation strategies and storage needs for digital materials.
—Coordinates workflows for the management and archiving of institutionally created media (i.e., web pages, images, moving images, and audio).
—Stays abreast of best practices, issues, and tools related to the stewardship of digital materials.
—The position reports to SFA Associate Director Mary Beth Lasseter.
Remuneration
The digital archivist will work 20 hours per week. The pay rate is $35/hour, paid bi-weekly.
Required qualifications
Master’s Degree in Library or Information Science from an ALA-accredited university, a Digital Archives Certificate from an ALA-accredited institution, a Digital Archives Specialist Certificate from the Society of American Archivists OR one or more years of demonstrated professional experience preserving, processing, describing, and delivering digital and hybrid archival materials in an academic or research library setting. Demonstrated experience creating finding aids. Must have specific knowledge of Omeka and OHMS systems.
Preferred Qualifications
Demonstrated knowledge of archival theory and practice; demonstrated knowledge of technologies and systems developed or adopted by the archival community for the management of and access to digital materials; demonstrated experience and skill using technologies and strategies related to digital forensics and digital preservation; demonstrated knowledge of metadata and other standards relevant to the control of digital materials such as OAIS, EAD, DACS, Dublin Core, MODS, and PREMIS; demonstrated ability to work creatively, independently, and collaboratively; experience working with oral history collections; strong written and oral communication skills.
The Southern Foodways Alliance, as an institute of the University of Mississippi, is committed to embracing the broadest definition of diversity, including race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religious choice, ethnicity, economic status, age, and geographic affiliation. This commitment stems from our mission. Moreover, as a part of an institution with a marked history of struggle with racial diversity, the SFA seeks to lead with unquestionable and unwavering commitment toward the goal of embracing all aspects of diversity.
Photo by Hope Media.