The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Digital Preservation Archivist
Job Details
Job Location
Dallas County - Dallas, TX
Salary Range
$55,000.00 - $65,000.00 Salary/year
Job Description
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, located in Dallas, Texas, is a world-renowned institution that offers a fascinating exploration of President John F. Kennedy's life, death and legacy. Located in the historic Texas School Book Depository building, where crucial evidence related to the assassination of President Kennedy was discovered, this iconic museum provides an exciting and enriching work environment.

The Museum’s historical collection is large, actively growing and represents a diverse repository of materials ranging from three-dimensional artifacts of all sizes, still and moving images, documents, audio and visual recordings, oral histories and other important documentation related to the assassination and legacy of President, the cultural legacy and continuing impact of the events of November 22, 1963, the social history of mid-twentieth century Dallas both before and after the assassination, and the history of Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository building.

As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to steward these important collections and engage with visitors from around the globe, contributing to their understanding of contemporary history through this pivotal moment in American history. Museum team members enjoy a competitive compensation package including comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, along with a best-in-class 401(k) contribution and match program. If you love history and enjoy interacting with the public, join us at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Become part of a passionate team that brings history to life and makes a lasting impact on all who visit.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Summary:

The Digital Preservation Archivist supports the Museum’s goals of preservation, intellectual control, expanded discoverability and enhanced public access to collections, with a focus on digitized and born-digital collections. This position manages the Museum’s digital collections and is responsible for developing and implementing preservation strategies—including policies, procedures, standards and workflows to ensure the long-term discoverability and accessibility of the Museum’s unique digital collections assets. The Digital Preservation Archivist manages digital collections stewardship and serves as the administrator for the Museum’s digital collections preservation system (Preservica). This position oversees preservation imaging of collections and the creation of associated metadata and catalog records for digital assets, advancing the Museum’s ability to provide access to digital collections and to incorporate them into exhibits, programs and other interpretive projects. Additionally, the Digital Preservation Archivist facilitates research and access to digital collections through deployment and management of digital collections on the Museum’s collections website and other digital platforms.

Essential Responsibilities:

· Provides expertise on digital preservation issues and access technology, infrastructure and storage.

· Researches and proposes new digital tools for expanding access to and discoverability of collections; stays current on digital preservation best practices and updates standards and workflows as needed.

· Recommends and implements updates to the Digital Preservation Plan (DPP); develops and implements strategies for strengthening documentation and preservation of existing digital collections.

· Coordinates ongoing preservation via implementation and use of digital collections preservation platform (Preservica), including processing newly acquired digital assets and assisting with user troubleshooting needs.

· Serves as liaison to digital collections preservation system vendor; following DPP to monitor stability/integrity of digital collections, assets, metadata and back-ups.

· Develops and implements policies, best practices and workflows for arrangement, preservation imaging, ingest, preservation of and access to digitized and born-digital collections; carries out quality assurance and tests new/proposed workflows.

· Develops and implements relevant metadata standards and controlled vocabularies.

· Conducts research on digital asset content to support metadata cataloging.

· Coordinates with Registrar on workflows and integration between the digital preservation platform (Preservica) and the collections management system (TMS).

· Manages asset and metadata migration ingest to Preservica from TMS and other platforms.

· Develops and oversees preservation imaging projects and creation of digital surrogates of collection objects.

· Ensures ongoing preservation and availability/accessibility of digital collections through appropriate media format conversion according to current best practices.

· Recommends and implements reformatting of obsolete and at-risk analog media and legacy media formats.

· Works collaboratively with other Collections staff and IT to research, recommend and manage equipment, vendors and technologies to support preservation imaging projects.

· Deploys digital collections content to customized Collections website, while tracking and monitoring to ensure usability and discoverability.

· Coordinates with Marketing Manager on compiling statistics and data on usage of digital collections.

· Facilitates access to and use of digital collections and provides specialized reference and research services for researchers, educators, students, scholars, media production companies, etc.

· Provides support on copyright and licensing matters related to digital collections: researches copyright issues, communicates with requestor, and facilitates request fulfillment by preparing and supplying content in appropriate formats.

· Contributes information on digital collections content to Museum projects, exhibits, programs and other interpretive activities.

· Represents and effectively communicates unique Collections needs in digital preservation and access initiatives at the departmental and senior staff levels.

· Supports Registrar on general collections care and preservation and management of the collections management system (TMS).

· Supports collections-based grant projects as appropriate.

· Participates in departmental meetings and activities.

· Other duties and tasks as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
Bachelor’s degree or Archival Certification required; Master’s degree preferred.

· Minimum of 5 years relevant professional experience working with digital collections; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

· Demonstrated experience in the development and implementation of policies and procedures relating to digital preservation, digital initiatives and digital projects management.

· In-depth knowledge of digital preservation standards and best practices, including content and asset management, access, migration, obsolescence and preservation.

· Prior experience working with digital preservation systems; Preservica strongly preferred.

· Working knowledge of standards related to digital material in current and legacy formats.

· In-depth knowledge of metadata standards, data structure standards and models relevant to digital preservation, such as Dublin Core, PBCore, OAIS, etc.

· Knowledge of a wide range of computer storage media, file systems, software and file formats.

· Knowledge/understanding of basic copyright issues related to digital collections.

· Knowledge of American history; preferably associated with the history of the 1960s.

· Strong data management and time management skills, with a keen attention to detail.

· Ability to work independently, to work as part of a team, and to lead a team.

· Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

· Must be able to sit at a workstation or computer for long hours.

· Must be able to stoop, bend and lift up to 20 pounds

The Sixth Floor Museum has competitive benefits which includes medical, dental, vision, and matching 401k plan, STD and LTD, vacation, sick, personal and holiday pay.

The Sixth Floor Museum is committed to building a culturally diverse staff and is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics.
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