Collection Management Archivist

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Caltech Library seeks a Collection Management Archivist committed to continual learning and collaboration. The Collection Management Archivist will steward our physical archives and special collections, including papers, photographs, film, audio and videotape, rare books, fine art, and scientific instruments. They will play a key role in a small university library, leading our efforts to improve preservation and efficiently utilize collection storage, and sharing expertise in these areas with colleagues.

The Collection Management Archivist functions as a member of the Archives and Special Collections department under the direction of the University Archivist. This is a benefit-based, overtime-eligible position, working 20 hours per week.

The mission of Archives and Special Collections is to facilitate understanding of Caltech's role in the history of science and technology, and of the research and lives of its community. The four archivists in the department each play multiple roles, contributing to collection development, processing, reference and access, and events and exhibitions. Other collaborators across Caltech Library include an oral history interviewer, a facilities coordinator, software developers, digitization staff, and repository and liaison librarians. Beyond the Library, we work with administrators and student organizations to transfer records and understand institutional history, teach special collections class sessions with course instructors, and curate physical and digital exhibitions for the campus community and beyond.

Among our priorities for this position are improving preservation storage of photographs, paintings, drawings, and other visual material, and reappraising and deaccessioning portions of manuscript and other collections that fall outside our collection development policy. This role does not include responsibility for digital collections, which are managed by our Digital Archivist.

Collection Management

• Engage in archival appraisal, accessioning, arrangement, description, and rehousing of collections across physical formats, including paper records, photographs, art, film, scientific instruments, and others.
• Improve preservation of collections using rehousing, environmental monitoring, refrigeration and freezing of film, and other techniques.
• In collaboration with the University Archivist, develop and maintain a plan for emergencies that damage or jeopardize collections, and implement it if necessary.
• Apply archival ethics and departmental policies with regard to privacy, confidentiality, copyright, and reparative description in providing and restricting access to collections.

Shared Department and Library Responsibilities

• Participate in all aspects of Archives and Special Collections public services, including reference, reading room supervision, and permissions.
• Serve on Caltech Library committees.
• Depending on needs, skills, and interests, engage in other activities of Archives and Special Collections such as rare book cataloging, instruction, exhibition curation and management, and supervision of student workers, interns, or volunteers.

Professional Engagement and Development

• Learn and adopt new technologies and skills, both proactively and as necessary for work.
• Engage with the professional community of archivists and maintain knowledge of developments in collection management, arrangement and description, and archival ethics.
• Contribute to the library and archives professions through service to professional organizations or through scholarship leading to presentation or publication.

• Graduate degree in librarianship or archives management, or other education, experience, and reading which provides a comparative understanding of how different archives and special collections libraries manage collections.
• Demonstrated knowledge of archival appraisal, arrangement, description, and preservation.

• Demonstrated knowledge of best practices in managing collections of photographs, film, videotape, fine art, or artifacts in the context of archives and special collections.
• Demonstrated knowledge of project management.
• Education in history of science and technology, public history, museum studies, records management, or other relevant disciplines.
• Demonstrated knowledge of ArchivesSpace, our collection management system.

• The working environment is an open-plan office adjacent to a reading room and other workspaces.
• Physical requirements include the ability to perform desk-based computer tasks for extended periods of time (either sitting or standing; a convertible desk will be provided).
• Accessioning, processing, reference, and collection management work. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.