Museum Technician, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is looking for an innovative and passionate individual to join our team and inspire citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. The Public Programs Division, within the National Institute for Holocaust Documentation is committed to building and preserving for posterity the fully accessible collection of record on the Holocaust.

The incumbent provides support to the professional staff of the Collections Management Branch performing, but not limited to, the tasks related to the care and management of the Museum’s holdings of audio and video testimonies, archival film collections and music and sound recordings, microforms, manuscripts, photographs and 3-dimensional artifacts. Tasks include preservation, accessioning, collections arrangement, collections reproduction, and collection retrieval and re-shelving.

Work environment is primarily at the Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center in Bowie, MD, and sometimes at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

This is a full-time donated (non-Federal) position, paid with the Museum’s private funds, with a one-year work assignment to assist in a digitization project, and includes benefits. Salary is commensurate with experience.

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Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent performs the following technical duties in support of the work of the Collections Management Branch and may consult with conservation staff and curatorial staff from the Curatorial, Acquisition and Reference Branch, Archives Branch, and the Digital Asset Management and Preservation Branch.

Preservation: 

• Following established procedures and industry best practices, works with responsible collections management staff for carrying out a variety of preservation and rehabilitation tasks relating to the Museum’s holdings. 
• Tasks may include monitoring the climate control systems in the storage facilities; identifying materials in need of conservation or are at risk of deterioration; and assisting in the execution of preservation projects, including conservation and digitization. 
• Safeguards and ensures the physical security of all Museum holdings by maintaining general housekeeping standards, careful handling of delicate materials, and attention to detail.

Accessioning:

• Works with responsible collections management staff and/or curatorial staff in the physical transfer of newly acquired materials to the Museum and/or offsite facility and in inventorying, rehousing, foldering, labeling, barcoding, numbering, assigning locations and other tasks required in order to establish preliminary physical control and to carry out the accessioning process.
• Responsible for creating records and inserting accessioning information in the collections database.

Collections Arrangement: 

• Responsible for taking corrective action in basic arrangement of Museum collections.

Collections Reproduction: 

• Coordinates with responsible collections management staff and/or curatorial staff to identify and prepare Museum’s holdings that are in a wide range of media formats for duplication. 
• Assists with preparing and organizing digitization or migration projects. 
• Prepares documentation, tracks and arranges shipments and retrieval of materials, and verifies and reshelves items.

Collections Retrieval and Reshelving:

• Retrieves, prepares, tracks and reshelves material requested for research or viewing in the Museum’s reading rooms or other collections locations. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree acceptable but Master’s degree preferred in Museum Studies, Archival Management or related field.
• Knowledge of specialized museum work related to the collection; the conservation techniques necessary for collections material; historic knowledge of the USHMM; and the procedures, methods and problem-solving used in the management of the collection and operation of the museum.
• Experience using computer technology including word processing and collections databases, such as Emu, barcoding equipment and electronic label production software.
• Familiarity of digitization techniques as it related to document collections.
• Ability to work with delicate or fragile materials, including manual dexterity. Experience in multi-platform content production.
• Ability to travel between Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center in Bowie, MD and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC as needed. 
• Ability to start July 23, 2018.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should send their resume and cover letter to [email protected]. Please include both your resume and cover letter in a single PDF or Word document titled “First Name Last Name”. Salary history may be required during the interview process. For more information about the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, please visit www.ushmm.org.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. This position is open to all qualified individuals. If you are not a US citizen, you must possess sufficient legal documentation and permission to work in the United States (and provide if requested).