Collections Specialist, Naval War College Foundation, Newport, RI
Posted March 14, 2022
Description:
Reporting to the President & Chief Development Officer, the Collections Specialist will manage a multi-year grant funded project to analyze, document, scan, and digitize all the NWCF objects held in either the Naval War College Museum (NWCM) or Naval War College Archives (NWCA) working tangentially with the NWCM and NWCA collections as well. All accession records must be reviewed, organized, scanned, labeled, and uploaded to the Collection Management software Proficio. After the accession records are digitized, a full inventory of the collection must be completed, including photographing the objects, filling out condition reports, analyzing the objects for conservation concerns, boxing and packing the objects properly for storage, and discussing conservation needs for each object with the Collections Manager of the Naval War College Museum (NWCM) and the President & Chief Development Officer of the NWCF. All collected data will be uploaded to the Collections Management Software (CMS) Proficio when completed. The Collections Specialist also assists NWCF staff with grant writing through the provision of content, the research of objects, their history, their significance and curatorial needs.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Lead day-to-day activities of the collections grant project
• Work with Collections Manager of the NWCM to access accession records and museum objects
• Collaborate with Collection Manager of the NWCM on any potential conservation issues or changes to an object’s housing and storage
• Update the Collections Management System (CMS) Proficio with digitized photographs, accession records, nomenclature, descriptions, conservation reports, condition reports, and provenance
• Maintain timelines for collections management project completion and update President & Chief Development Officer on progress at planned meetings
• Effectively manage the acquisition and duties of interns during project; filling out appropriate paperwork for each university’s internship requirements
• Complete a full inventory of the NWCF objects held in the NWCM or NWCA
• Work with the President & Chief Development Officer and Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations to research background and provide content for grant writing
• Work with Head Archivist to organize handling and digitization of the paper objects, as well as any grant writing relevancy questions
• Facilitate new gift acquisitions of objects and/or documents being donated to the Foundation for the benefit of the NWCM and/or NWCA
REQUIREMENTS:
• Bachelor’s degree, Master’s preferred, in Museum Studies, Conservation, Library Science, History, or related field with at least two years of work experience in museum management and object handling
• Experience with handling museum objects and documents, writing condition reports, managing loaned objects
• Experience with a cloud-based CMS, preferably Proficio, Past Perfect, or EMu
• Photography and digitization experience with various digital cameras, editing images, uploading images to CMS
• Skill with primary and secondary source research
• Demonstrated written, verbal, and organizational skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft products, including: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Committed to quality; organized, accurate and meticulous attention to detail
• Self-starter and leader with the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities to meet fast-paced deadlines in a growing organization
• Experience with copyright research a plus
How to Apply:
Qualified applicants should forward a cover letter and resume via email to [email protected]. Please submit documents in Rich Text (.txt) Word document (.doc) or Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf). NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.
When responding via email please reference – COLLECTIONS SPECIALIST – in the subject line. Every effort will be made to acknowledge documents submitted by applicants via email.