Project Archivist for Institutional Records at The Noguchi Museum
Job Title: Project Archivist for Institutional Records
Job Status: Full-time
Location: New York, NY
Salary: $65,000
The Noguchi Museum seeks a qualified information professional to join the archives team. Reporting to the Head of Archives, this full-time, two-year position will be focused on the processing and rehousing of the physical institutional records of The Noguchi Museum.
The Noguchi Museum holds approximately 400 boxes of records dating from the late 1980s to present. These materials are currently held at the Museum, but will be moving to an offsite records storage facility in the first half of 2023.
Within a two-year grant-funded period, the goals of the project include appraising, arranging, describing, and rehousing the Museum’s unprocessed extant physical records. The materials are primarily paper files—but also include photographic prints, negatives, publications, and other paraphernalia related to the establishment, evolution, and ongoing administration and management of The Noguchi Museum.
This position is well-suited for an early-career archivist interested in working in a highly collaborative environment with an eye towards advancing The Noguchi Museum’s goals of promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access through active participation in decision-making processes related to how collections are selected, described, accessed, and showcased.
The timing for the position is flexible, but an early to mid-February 2023 start is ideal. Due to the project funding schedule, the application deadline is Tuesday, January 17, 2023.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
The work of the Project Archivist for Institutional Records will be broken up into the following phases/project goals over the course of two years:
• Box level inventory / preliminary assessment of records currently housed onsite.
• Coordination of move of boxes to offsite records facility.
• Process the institutional records collection by retrieving a selection of boxes (approximately 10 at a time) from the offsite facility for item-level review at the Museum. The goal is to achieve box to folder level arrangement and description (depending on record type). This phase will also include the purging of excess or unnecessary materials and the selection of important materials for digitization (with the aid of long-term Museum staff).
• Rehousing records into archivally stable boxes and folders.
• Creation of a finding aid for the collection.
• Assisting the Head of Archives on the record retention policy for The Noguchi Museum.
• If time permits—the Project Archivist will also work on coordinating digitization and item level cataloging for the integration of select institutional records into the Museum’s Collective Access archival database, as well as some assessment and upload of born-digital museum records.
Experience, Skills, and Qualities
• Masters degree in Information or Library Science, or equivalent combination of education and experience (ideally a minimum of 2 years of professional experience working in an archive)
• Exceptional organizational skills, problem-solving and research skills, attention to detail and accuracy
• Flexibility to changing priorities, the ability to set and keep deadlines and to work independently as well as collaboratively
• Knowledge of archival theory, standards, and practices, particularly in the area of paper and photograph collections
• Strong knowledge of and experience applying metadata standards such as EAD, DACS, and VRA Core
• Knowledge of controlled vocabularies and standards
• Strong working knowledge of Excel / Google Sheets
• Experience working with vendors for archival digitization, IT, and storage
• Essential requirements of the position are to move boxes weighing more than 30 lbs as well as reaching shelves below desk height and above shoulder height, and moving throughout buildings and Museum properties to access files
• Working knowledge of CollectiveAccess is highly desirable
Compensation
Salary is $65,000 annually, and benefits include a generous health insurance program, starting on the first of the month following hire date, including medical, dental, and vision, a 403(b) retirement savings plan with company contribution and match after a year of employment, paid time off, and other benefits.
Work Environment
The Project Archivist for Institutional Records is a full-time, two-year project position located at The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens. Hours are 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday. Work is typically performed both in a warehouse/storage setting as well as in an office environment; prolonged periods of standing and lifting, as well as sitting, use of computers and standard office equipment required to accomplish work objectives. This position will primarily be onsite at The Noguchi Museum, with the eventual possibility of one work from home day per week as the job responsibilities dictate.
Currently, the Museum is operating on a hybrid work model as it continues to assess the ongoing risk and impact of COVID-19. The health and safety of its community is the Museum’s first priority, therefore The Noguchi Museum highly encourages all staff members to be up to date on FDA authorized and/or approved COVID-19 vaccines.
To Apply
In a single PDF, please send a cover letter, résumé, and a list of three references (including names, titles, postal and email addresses, and telephone numbers) to jobs@noguchi.org with “Institutional Project Archivist” in the subject line.