Special Collections Digital Archivist

Special Collections Digital Archivist

Department: Library Special Collections

Rank and Salary: Assistant Librarian - Librarian ($61,920 - $108,349)

Position Availability: Immediately

Application deadline for first consideration: August 30, 2024

The Special Collections Digital Archivist provides leadership and coordination for collecting and stewarding Library Special Collections’ digitized and born-digital materials and supports LSC efforts to provide access to special collections material across platforms. This highly collaborative position plays a critical role in cultivating strong cross-departmental relationships with key stakeholders throughout the library to enhance workflows that ensure long-term stewardship and access to digital special collections.

Position Duties

Reporting to the Team Leader for Collection Management, the incumbent develops and implements policies and procedures that facilitate stewardship and access to LSC’s digitized and born-digital materials in accordance with emerging standards and best practices in collaboration with Digital Initiative and Information Technology (DIIT) and other library units.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

1. Works closely with LSC staff to increase capacity for processing, arranging, and describing both incoming and legacy digitized and born-digital materials.
2. Partners with stakeholders throughout the library to enhance existing digitization infrastructure as it pertains to LSC materials and across all phases of the project lifecycle, including feasibility assessments and reviews, stewardship of physical source collections, imaging or reformatting, metadata creation, ingest, testing, promotion, and assessment.
3. Articulates, shares, and communicates priorities and goals for LSC digital projects to internal and external stakeholders.
4. Conducts pre-custodial activities in collaboration with donors, curators, and the accessioning archivist to appraise and safely transfer born digital materials during the collection acquisition process.
5. Consults with curatorial, collection management, and LSC public services staff to support and implement workflows and protocols to develop digital access strategies that leverage the use of baseline description as a tool to improve the discoverability of digital materials.
6. Ensures LSC digital projects are informed by and in alignment with Digital Initiatives services.
7. Contributes to ongoing assessment of usage, user behavior, and user needs relating to digital collections in order to inform new initiatives and continual improvements to digital collections and discovery platforms.
8. Participates in the conception and development of grant applications to help UCLA Library build infrastructure for born-digital materials and to complete digital projects.
9. Represents UCLA Library in UC-wide and national, regional, and local committees and forums on matters relevant to digital special collections access.
10. Supervises 1 FTE.
11. Works closely with Library Development to identify and steward donors, collections, and endowed gift funds.
12. The successful candidate will be committed to promoting and enhancing diversity through engagement with and promotion of the UCLA Principles of Community.

Required Qualifications

1. ALA-accredited Master’s Degree in Library or Information Science required at the time of hire; OR Master’s degree (or other advanced degree) in Information Sciences or related field at the time of hire and work experience in a library setting.
2. Knowledge of and experience with standards and best practices for digitization and description of cultural heritage materials and demonstrated understanding of issues and challenges related to archival and bibliographic description.
3. Familiarity with legal and ethical considerations for digitized and born-digital access.
4. Experience with archival technologies and tools related to appraising, accessioning, processing, preserving, and providing access to born digital archives (e.g. FTK, ePADD, BitCurator).
5. Ability to initiate and maintain cooperative working relationships with co-workers, supervisors, and managers within and across departmental and unit lines and to represent LSC to relevant constituencies.
6. Demonstrated ability to address issues of diversity and equity, and a commitment to and understanding of ethical and inclusive description strategies.
7. Experience with successful project management including demonstrated ability to set priorities and deadlines and stay within budget.
8. Experience training or mentoring colleagues.

General Information

Professional librarians at UCLA are academic appointees. Librarians at UCLA are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This is a represented position. They are entitled to appropriate professional leave, two days per month of vacation leave, one day per month of sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits. Relocation assistance may be provided.

Application Procedures

Anyone wishing to be considered for this position should apply here:

Applications must include:

1. a cover letter describing qualifications and experience;
2. a current resume/vitae detailing education and relevant experience;
3. the names and contact information for three professional references , including a current or previous supervisor; and
4. a Statement of Contributions to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) .

UCLA welcomes and encourages diversity and seeks applications and nominations from women and minorities. UCLA seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the people of California, to maintain the excellence of the university, and to offer our students richly varied disciplines, perspectives, and ways of knowing and learning.