Archives Consultant, Groton School, Groton, MA
Posted July 25, 2019
Groton School seeks an archives consultant to develop a plan for the school’s archival collection. The plan will act as a guide for organizing the school archives according to best practices and devising policies for paper and electronic record-keeping, mindful of both current legal obligations and appropriate privacy concerns. The consultant will advise on how the plan will be implemented and sustained. The ideal applicant will be a trained archivist interested in both the first steps of consulting/planning and the subsequent implementation of the agreed-upon plan.
Groton School’s archives, now stored in a water- and fireproof, climate-controlled space, includes boxes of manuscripts and correspondence of past headmasters, 100,000 plus photographs, reels of recently digitized film, and many, many cabinet drawers of ephemera. The plan should include step-by-step guidelines for cataloging existing as well as anticipated materials. Additional considerations may include digitizing key historical materials of greatest interest to the general public and historians as well as those that would prove most useful for student research projects, as well as determining best uses for an extensive collection of already digitized audio-visual materials.
A key aspect of plan development will be interviewing all heads of departments in order to understand how they currently handle records and what policies would improve their practices. The plan may also include suggestions for using archival materials to build alumni engagement.
While the archival consultant must be willing to dedicate extensive time to the project, schedule and length of contract are negotiable. Compensation will be commensurate with experience. The non-benefited position does include meals in the school’s Dining Hall during the academic year as well as access to Athletic Center facilities.
The ideal consultant will have experience helping institutions organize and optimize their archives, as well as genuine enthusiasm to work at a school with a rich history. Founded in 1884, Groton School is a diverse community devoted to inspiring lives of character, learning, leadership, and service. Three hundred eighty students in grades eight through twelve benefit from the guidance of more than ninety faculty members who live on a bucolic New England campus with world-class facilities, all less than an hour’s drive from Boston, Massachusetts. Groton’s graduates include President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, statesmen Dean Acheson and McGeorge Bundy, authors Louis Auchincloss and Curtis Sittenfeld, and actors Sam Waterston and Bill Camp, to name a few of the school’s prominent alumni.
Groton School is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity. The school complies with all government regulations regarding non-discriminating employment practices and, beyond that, provides an atmosphere that ensures all have the opportunity to succeed on their own merit, qualifications, and abilities. Groton School does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or any characteristics protected by law. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including selection, job assignment, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.
Please send proposals, including anticipated length of project and required compensation, to [email protected].