Archivist, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, MA

Posted April 9, 2024

This position is part of the National Archives and Records Administration. Serves as an archivist at a John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and is responsible, along with other members of the archival staff, for planning, performing and monitoring all archival functions in a variety of media, establishing work priorities, and ensuring that priorities and work assigned to the archival staff are completed in compliance with NARA policies, standards, and procedures.

Duties

The following are the duties of this position at the GS-12. If you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform all these duties, and will receive training to help you grow in this position.

As an Archivist, you will:

Develop procedures for processing and reviewing presidential holdings and related collections many of which continue to retain high levels of sensitivity and present complex processing problems.
Plan and direct the arrangement of donated and Federal records. Determine the arrangement for records that are totally disarranged, misfiled, or for which the provenance is unclear.
Independently provide reference service in response to simple and complex e-mail, phone, fax, and written requests for information regarding the Library’s textual and non-textual holdings and secondary sources of information.
Work with special access researchers and performs searches in response to Congressional, court-ordered, or agency requests for information and documents.
Apply preservation techniques and recommends strategies for textual records, electronic records, or audiovisual materials.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

The experience may have been gained in either the public, private sector or volunteer service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your resume.

A one year probationary period may be required.
Must successfully complete a background investigation.
Complete a Declaration for Federal Employment to determine your suitability for Federal employment, at the time requested by the agency.
If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so.
Go through a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) process that requires two forms of identification from the Form i-9. Federal law requires verification of the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires in the U.S.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS: Work is primarily sedentary with some standing, walking, and lifting of boxes up to 40 pounds.

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
To be qualified for this position at the GS-12 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience for this position includes:
– Utilizing various systems or databases to locate, analyze, index, and manage archival records. AND
– Experience designing and executing communications strategies, plans, or activities in order to perform customer outreach. AND
– Experience leading media preservation projects.

To be qualified for this position at the GS-11 level, you must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-9 level that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience for this position includes:

– Utilizing various systems or databases to locate, analyze, index, and manage archival records; AND
– Communicating and planning activities geared towards providing record access to researchers. (Examples may include: activities at every point of the archival life cycle: accessioning, processing, description, reference);AND
– Participating in projects describing or preserving a body of records.

OR
You may substitute education for specialized experience as follows: 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree.

OR
You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.

NOTE: Only education in excess of the first 36 semester hours (i.e., beyond the second year) of graduate education is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirement.

Education

Education Requirements:
Basic requirements for all grades:

A. Bachelor’s degree in archival science or bachelor’s degree with a major that includes 18 semester hours in archival science, history and/or in political science or government, and 12 semester hours in one or any combination of the following: archival science, history, American civilization, economics, political science, public administration, or government.

OR

B. Combination of education and experience – at least 30 semester hours that included courses as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

The education generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

How to Apply

Apply through this link: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/783354100