The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (Blinken OSA Archivum) at Central European University (CEU) based primarily in Budapest, but with teaching tasks in Vienna, Austria invites applications for the Digital Archivist position.
Blinken OSA Archivum is part of Central European University (www.ceu.edu), one of the most multinational graduate institutions in Europe, engaged primarily in the humanities and social sciences. The Archivum is a complex institution of memory that supports scholarship, is engaged in research, is the initiator of high visibility public programs, and manages the Archives and Evidentiary Practices specialization at the History and Legal Studies Departments at CEU. The Archivum is also an “archive of last resort”, the archive of (politically and otherwise) endangered collections.
Blinken OSA Archivum hopes to attract a unique intellectual who is ready to experiment and to take calculated professional and intellectual challenges; who is passionate about new archival and library theories, technologies, trends in digital media, digital humanities, and open access; and who is highly knowledgeable about emerging IT solutions.
General Function of the Digital Archivist
The Digital Archivist is responsible for all digital holdings of the Archivum, whether resulting from digitization of analog materials, born-digital or acquired from external sources. This responsibility extends to the creation and maintenance of metadata records and to policies regarding the creation, organization, description, storage, and preservation of, as well as access to digital materials. In close collaboration with the Chief Archivist and the Head of IT, the Digital Archivist takes lead role in the development and implementation of a digital preservation strategy and digital asset management policy across the Archivum. The Digital Archivist provides support in digitization and digital humanities projects for other professional staff.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Oversees digitization procedures by implementing and refining methodologies and practices for sustainable and secure digital archiving, for both born-digital and digitized records.
- Creates and updates policies and procedures for managing digital materials for ingest, storage, preservation, organization, description, and access, including the Archivum’s Digital Preservation Policy and Digital Asset Management Policy. Creates and maintains inventory for the digital assets of the Archivum.
- Ensures the accessibility of the Archivum’s digital assets and other special collections by determining their appropriate intellectual organization and digital storage structure.
- Takes part in designing the key elements of the digital preservation workflow (technical metadata collection, checksum, creation, modification, and last access dates, as well as file formats and sizes).
- Understands the use and problems of migration strategies, and, in cooperation with the Head of IT proposes and devises related tasks and assigns necessary resources.
- Provides periodical review of digital preservation activities and preservation strategy by adjusting them to the latest standards.
- Actively works together with the Archivum’s IT unit on improving the functions of the Archival Management System (AMS), testing newly implemented features, collecting feedback about the software, and registering feature requests.
- Oversees, in cooperation with the Archiuvm’s Counsellor copyright and access rights terms of existing digital materials and helps implement a sustainable rights management policy.
- Provides technical support for professional staff in initiating and pursuing digitization projects, creating, or updating Curated Collections and other digital humanities projects.
- Keeps abreast of the latest trends in his field through self-study, networking (in and out of the Central European University) and participating in professionally relevant training and development courses.
Required Knowledge and Skills
- Relevant experience in life/cycle management of digital records (born-digital and reformatted legacy holdings), digital preservation and information management.
- Knowledge of current trends and protocols in digital archiving and of tools and software used to capture and manage digital records.
- Proficiency in file management and working with command line commands and bash scripts is a must. Experience working in a networked environment (file servers).
- Knowledge of long-term preservation file formats, and general knowledge about video and audio codecs
- Familiarity with metadata standards, information taxonomies and other standards in arrangement, description, and management of digital materials.
- General knowledge of archival theory and best practices.
- Excellent analytical, interpersonal, time management, and organizational skills.
- Excellent written and oral communication abilities in English.
- Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and meet deadlines.
- Ability to work creatively, both independently and collaboratively.
Assets
- Knowledge of obsolete storage formats (floppy disks, CD-ROMs, DVDs).
- Knowledge of handling email archives.
- Experience in writing institutional policies and guidelines.
- Basic programming skills (such as Python and/or JavaScript). Basic knowledge of relational database management systems.
- MSc or an advanced degree in any related field.
- Digital records management best practices.
- General knowledge of web archiving, cataloging, and preserving websites.
- Basic knowledge of relational database management systems.
Compensation
We offer a competitive salary that is commensurate with experience as well as a dynamic and international academic environment. The initial contract is for one year with the possibility of renewal.
How to apply
Applicants need to submit:
CV
Cover letter
We do not ask for reference letters at the first stage of application; referees of short-listed candidates may be requested and contacted for references later by CEU.
Informal inquiries may be addressed to Katalin Gádoros, Head of Administration at gadoros@ceu.edu.
Please send your complete application package to advert079@ceu.edu – including the job code in the subject line: 2023/079
CEU is strongly committed to the promotion of gender equality and equal opportunities within our institution. Previous training, work experience and/or engagement with matters of equality, diversity and inclusion at the organizational level will be an asset.
Central European University does not discriminate on the basis of—including, but not limited to—race, color, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender and sexual orientation in administering its educational policies, admissions policies, employment, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.