Processing and Metadata Archivist

The Center for Jewish History (the Center, CJH) is the collaborative home of five in-house Partner organizations – American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research – whose collections comprise over seven linear miles of archival documents in dozens of languages and alphabet systems, over 500,000 volumes of books, over 15 million digital items, and thousands of artworks and objects, all spanning 5,000 years.

As one of the Center’s vibrant Partner institutions, in the same building,
Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin (LBI) is a research archive and library dedicated to the history and culture of German-speaking Jews. Its extensive library, archival, and art collections comprise one of the most significant repositories of primary source material and scholarship on centuries of Jewish life in Central Europe before the Holocaust.

Together, the Center and LBI will hire and co-supervise a new archival position. The Processing and Metadata Archivist will work collaboratively with LBI staff to process large archival collections, including the papers of individuals, families and organizations with German Jewish roots that document emigration across the United States and the Americas. Additionally, the new archivist will receive extensive training from the Center on archival metadata remediation, enabling LBI to evaluate and normalize their archival descriptions in a shared Archives Space instance.

The Processing and Metadata Archivist is an on-site role with responsibilities divided between the two organizations, LBI and the Center. The archivist reports jointly to the Director of Collections (LBI) and the Chief of Information Services (CJH) within the Metadata & Discovery Services Department.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

LBI Processing Archivist (80%)

• Process collections to ensure alignment with archival best practices, content standards, appropriate arrangement, and accessibility in close cooperation with LBI’s Senior Archivist.
• Create and enhance descriptive records and resources for archival collections in either our shared integrated library system or our archival content management system, Archives Space.
• Differentiate restricted or private documents from unrestricted materials to intellectually separate materials that can be made available to a wider, external audience.
• Handle archival materials safely, accurately, and meticulously.
• Identify and earmark physical materials, within the processed collections, of special interest or strategic value to LBI, researchers, or the general public.
• Collaborate with a team of dedicated library and archive staff to maintain data quality and consistency across shared library and archival systems.
• Perform administrative duties as assigned.

CJH Metadata Archivist (20%)

• Survey Partner archival description and resources with an eye toward improvement and standardization across Partner-specific datasets and the Center as a whole.
• Perform a series of analytical reviews to identify and resolve nonfunctioning hyperlinks and inaccurate description in Archives Space. Remediation will require both manual and programmatic solutions in close consultation with the Chief of Information Services and/or the Systems Archivist.
• Document remediation workflows and decisions made in conference with Partner staff across the Center community.
• Collaborate cross-departmentally with collections, research, or technical staff to enhance institutional goals and project outcomes.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Required:

• Master’s in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited library school, an accredited graduate degree in archival science, or with a specialization in archives.
• 2-5 years working experience with preservation, care, and management of archival collections and with library/archival management systems.
• Excellent German reading skills (C1/C2 proficiency or equivalent), comfortable reading old German script, or willingness to learn to read script.
• Demonstrated proficiency in archival processing and description of both digital and physical…