Digital Archivist, Mount Auburn Cemetery, (Cambridge, MA)
Posted August 7, 2025
Job Description
Mount Auburn Cemetery seeks a highly organized, self-motivated, and collaborative Digital Archivist for a full-time position. This role will be on the ground floor of creating a digital archival repository for Mount Auburn and will serve as a key team player to support the planning and execution of a cemetery-wide digital business transformation initiative. They will manage the long-term stewardship and preservation of Mount Auburn’s born-digital assets and digital facsimiles while working to ensure their accessibility and usability.
The Digital Archivist will assist the Curator in advising the Cemetery on preservation of digital assets, coordinating and troubleshooting, and processing tasks and projects. They will serve as liaison with colleagues in the Historical Collections & Archives, IT, and Cemetery Services, as well as across other departments within the Cemetery. They will appraise, process, prepare, and ingest files for permanent preservation and online access; support efficient workflows for metadata creation and enhancement; and provide subject matter expertise in integrating the digital collection with other tools.
Candidates should demonstrate experience in a broad range of digital document processing tasks, knowledge of archival preservation principles and practices, and familiarity with digital asset preservation solutions. To succeed in this role, candidates must have effective interpersonal and communication skills, an appreciation of diverse stakeholder perspectives, and make decisions that align with the institutional goals of the Cemetery.
Position Duties
- Assists Curator in determining policies and procedures for the curation and stewardship of digital materials according to professional standards and scalable and sustainable methods.
- Ingests digital records and accompanying metadata into an archival digital preservation repository, Preservica.
- Assists in selecting, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting hardware and software used for accessioning, processing, and preservation workflows.
- Coordinates with internal and external stakeholders to maintain the flow of digital collections throughout accessioning and processing workflows and project lifecycles. Collaborates with partners within the Historical Collections & Archives, Cemetery, Services, IT, and beyond regarding education and outreach to promote the use of digital collections according to best practices.
- May supervise other staff such as catalogers, data managers, archives volunteers, and academic interns.
- Accessions, and processes born-digital materials and records that have been changed into a digital format. Creates accession records and finding aids for digital archives.
- As a leader in digital preservation, engages in regional and national communities, integrating best and emerging practices.
- Provides support and completes tasks as needed within the Historical Collections & Archives Department.
Qualifications
- MLS or MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited library school, or equivalent accredited degree is required.
- Demonstrated experience of 1-2 years in cultural heritage digitization or digital preservation.
- In-depth knowledge of and displayed interest in digital preservation.
- Training in current archival theory and practice.
- Experience in archives, information science, computing, digital archiving, preservation, and electronic records management.
- Strong knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite of software tools, particularly Excel.
- Experience with scripting for process automation, with Python experience strongly preferred.
- Working experience with structured data, digital object standards, and metadata formats, standards, and frameworks (i.e., METS, MODS, ALTO, MARC, IIIF, Dublin Core, etc.).
- Working knowledge of United States copyright law and fair use.
- Familiarity with standards and best practices for cultural heritage digitization and digital preservation.
- Experience reading 19th and 20th-century handwritten documents preferred.
Hours & Compensation
- Full-time
How to Apply
To apply, please click on Digital Archivist.