The Center for Jewish History (NYC | cjh.org) is the collaborative home to five in-house Partners—American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.  The Center and its Partner institutions have cultivated an unparalleled reputation for physical and digital access to over seven linear miles of papers, publications, recordings, objects, artworks, photographs, and nearly 200 terabytes of digitized materials. 

The Center for Jewish History seeks a diligent, practical individual to become our Systems Archivist. The newly created position will complement our Systems Librarian but focus instead on archival description and digital access to archival materials. Responsibilities include management and troubleshooting related to our shared archives information management system, ArchivesSpace, as well as coordinating remediation projects, training staff, and maintaining documentation on behalf of our Partner institutions. The successful candidate will be able to develop and promote best practices related to systems-based archival description used to access archival materials available online and in The Lillian Goldman Reading Room.

The Systems Archivist is part of a team of information professionals at the Center and will report to the Director of Metadata & Discovery Services.  Metadata & Discovery Services coordinates the interoperability and integration between shared Center library systems that control, describe, preserve, and provide access to the rich physical and digital holdings on behalf of our five Partner institutions. The Systems Archivist will collaborate closely with Partner archivists, our service provider Lyrasis, and other in-house stakeholders to ensure that our Partners’ archival holdings, available at the Center, are under intellectual control, discoverable, and accurately described.

Responsibilities:

• Oversees the maintenance of ArchivesSpace and peripheral tools related to the description and discovery of the physical, digitized and born-digital archival holdings of the Partners and Center.
• Troubleshoots and resolves issues with the web-based application and/or archival description in collaboration with LYRASIS and colleagues in Metadata and Discovery Services.
• Utilizes and tests a variety of strategies to programmatically extract and manipulate archival description to aid in remediation projects and greater intellectual control of archival resources.
• Develops, refines, and documents workflows to effectively describe physical and digital archival holdings within shared Center library systems and externally with data-sharing partners or platforms.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited library school, an accredited graduate degree in archival science, or with a specialization in archives.
• 3-5 years’ experience working within an archival or special library setting using archival management or library systems.
• Commitment to programmatic and systems-based solutions for correcting and optimizing archival description in ArchivesSpace and across shared library systems.
• Basic competency with Python and/or Application Programming Interface (APIs).
• Strong background in archival description and standards (such as DACS, EAD, EAC-CPF, and/or MARC) and familiarity with controlled vocabularies and authority files.
• Capable of fostering collaboration within a consortia-like environment and developing diplomatic, adaptable approaches to creating and enhancing archival description within shared library systems.
• Comfort balancing daily tasks and strategic, longer-term systems-based projects and priorities.

 Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous administrative responsibilities within ArchivesSpace, another archival collection management system, or a digital asset management system.
• Interest in the ethical application of artificial intelligence tools to archival description and in developing new approaches to increasing access to archival materials.
• Comprehension of and comfort with descriptive metadata across library systems (Aleph (Ex Libris), Rosetta (Ex Libris), EMu (Axiell), ArchivesSpace (Lyrasis), Primo (Ex Libris)), including the ability to crosswalk data from different formats.
• Experience providing access to multilingual collections in any of the following languages: Hebrew, Yiddish, German, or Russian.

About Center for Jewish History

Center for Jewish History and partner collections span five thousand years, with tens of millions of archival documents (in dozens of languages and alphabet systems), more than 500,000 volumes, as well as thousands of artworks, textiles, ritual objects, recordings, films, and photographs. As one of the world's foremost research institutions, the Center offers academic fellowships, symposia, conferences, and lectures as well as a wide array of cultural, educational and genealogy programs for the public.

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