Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Project Archivist, Harvard Libraries, Cambridge, MA
Posted February 7, 2024
Reporting to the Collections Services Archivist/Processing Manager, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Project Archivist (EJSPA) will process the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf personal archive as recently acquired by the Harvard Library. The collection includes over 50 cubic feet of documents, photographs, books, newspapers, and artifacts as well as audio-visual recordings on removable media and in digital form documenting Sirleaf’s personal life while active in Liberian politics, including her governing of Liberia as Africa’s first elected female head of state from 2005 to 2018. This high-profile and content-rich collection will take significant research, analysis, and attention to detail to provide the level of description and access it warrants.
The EJSPA will survey the collection, prepare a detailed plan of work, and conduct detailed analysis, preparation, and preservation of the born-digital content before fully describing the collection in a finding aid according to archival descriptive standards to facilitate full digitization of analog contents and delivery of born digital content. The EJSPA will also collaborate with the Associate University Archivist for Community Engagement to promote the collection on social media and other Harvard outlets, engage students with the collection during class visits to the Harvard University Archives, and assist in the planning of a symposium, exhibition, and related events to be held to celebrate the opening of the collection for researcher use.
The Harvard University Archives has recently joined with the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Fine Arts Library, Harvard Film Archive, and Houghton Library to create Archives, Arts, and Special Collections of Harvard Library, a new administrative unit currently planning integrated approaches to technical services for archives and special collections across the portfolio.
To view the complete position description and to apple, see here.
This is an 18 month term position.