Visiting Archivist for African American Collections, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University Administrative Fellowship Program, Cambridge, MA

Posted March 18, 2016

The Harvard Library is seeking a Visiting Archivist for African American Collections. The Visiting Archivist for African American Collections will participate in Harvard’s Administrative Fellowship Program which seeks to attract talented professionals, and in particular, members of historically underrepresented groups, to promote leadership opportunities and careers in higher education. The Visiting Archivist will also participate in The History Makers minority archivist fellowship.

In its twenty-sixth year of operation, the Administrative Fellowship Program offers the opportunity to work in an academic environment for twelve months complemented by a career development program. Fellows receive salary and benefits for full time work assignments from September 2016 through August 2017. Fellows also participate in seminars, lectures and case studies designed to enhance leadership and administrative skills, self-assessment and career development.

The Schlesinger Library offers this position in collaboration with The HistoryMakers, as a continuation of its initiative to provide training to African American archivists, and archivists interested in working with African American collections. In 2009, The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive was awarded an IMLS Laura Bush 21^st Century Librarian Grant # RE-06-10-0080 entitled Increasing African American Diversity in Archives: The HistoryMakers Fellowship, Mentoring, Training and Placement Institute. Twelve archivists were trained over a two year period and placed in African American archives across the country. Since 1999, The HistoryMakers has been recording African American video oral histories to refashion a more inclusive record of American history, and to educate and enlighten millions worldwide, building the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive. The HistoryMakers is the single largest archival collection of its kind in the world, designed to promote and celebrate the successes and to document movements, events and organizations that are important to the African American community and to American society. The Collection is now housed permanently at the Library of Congress alongside the WPA Slave Narratives, joining the stories of the enslaved with the stories of their progeny.

Description:

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, the preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, documents women’s lives from the past and present for the future and furthers the Radcliffe Institute’s commitment to women, gender, and society. The Schlesinger Library holdings date from the founding of the United States to the present and include more than 3,800 manuscript collections, 100,000s of books and periodicals, and films, photos, and audiovisual material.

In collaboration with the Harvard Library, the Schlesinger Library offers an Administrative Fellowship in support of The HistoryMakers’ commitment to provide training to African American archivists and archivists interested in working with African American collections. Since 1999, The HistoryMakers has been recording African American oral histories to refashion a more inclusive record of American history and to educate and enlighten millions worldwide, building the nation’s largest African American video oral history collection. It is the single largest archival collection of its kind in the world designed to promote and celebrate the successes and to document movements, events and organizations that are important to the African American community and to American society.

The Visiting Archivist will learn about aspects of archives and special collections librarianship beyond manuscript and archival processing, from professionals throughout the Schlesinger Library and across Harvard through a variety of professional development activities.

The Visiting Archivist for African American Collections will:

Process archival collections, particularly African American collections, in the Schlesinger Library, including literature, history, and the humanities from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries
Prepare finding aids according to established local practice, including encoding in EAD
Participate in library wide activities such as exhibition preparation, preparing materials for reformatting, etc.
Catalog photographs and audio-visual materials within collections
Plan, direct, and review the work of student assistants
Assist in the preservation assessment of collections and in the selection of materials for conservation treatment
Assist in the ongoing development of the unit’s processing and cataloging procedures for manuscript and archival collections
Complete special projects as assigned.

Applicants must have:

Master’s degree
Up to three years of work experience

Additional experience and skills include:

Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library school or equivalent accredited degree, such as an MA in Public History with training in archival theory and practice.
Up to three years’ experience with basic standards for archival and manuscript collections as well as experience arranging, describing or providing public services for manuscript and/or archival collections.
Knowledge of conservation and preservation practices desired.
Demonstrated knowledge of archival theory and practice may be substituted for formal training.
Demonstrated knowledge of current national data content and structure standards related to the archival control of collection materials.
Demonstrated knowledge of archival and library management systems.
Demonstrated excellent oral, written, and interpersonal communications and analytical ability.
Demonstrated record of designing projects and bringing them to a conclusion in a timely fashion.
Experience working collaboratively and independently with varied groups within a complex organization and rapidly changing, team environment.
Demonstrated record of designing projects and bringing them to a conclusion in a timely fashion.
Experience working collaboratively and independently with varied groups within a complex organization and rapidly changing, team environment.

Please note: The application deadline for the Visiting Archivist for African American Collections has been extended to April 15, 2016.

For application materials, please call/write:

Administrative Fellowship Program

Office of the Assistant to the President

for Institutional Diversity & Equity

The Smith Campus Center, Room 935

1350 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138

(617) 495-8919; email: [email protected]

or download AFP Application 2015-2016.

Harvard is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications from women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by law.

For details regarding your rights, please go to https://s3.amazonaws.com/pa-hrsuite-production/620/docs/56148.pdf to view the “EEO is the Law” poster.