Job Opening Title: Contract Processing Archivist
Employer Name: Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives
Job Location: Suitland, MD
Application Deadline: August 21, 2022
Salary Range:
Years of experience required: 3
Job Description (if URL to posting not available). Please include instructions for how to apply.: Professional Level Archival Processing Services at the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
SUMMARY
The National Anthropological Archives (NAA) has a need to procure 1800 hours of professional archival services from an independent contractor to process the records of the Society for American Archaeology, as well as rehouse and update the finding aid for the papers of Archaeologist Lewis R. Binford. The scope of work includes archival preservation, arrangement, and description of collections according to professional and current archival standards, best practices, and national strategies, as well as NAA’s internal policies, procedures, guidelines, and established workflows. Processing work will include the production of a high quality DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) compliant fully encoded EAD (Encoded Archival Description) finding aids to be published on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVA).
The selected contractor is expected to be a trained professional archivist with at least five years of experience in processing, preserving, and describing archival and manuscript collections. It is preferred that the contractor have some experience with processing the records of a non-profit organization and/or processing a large collection. The contractor is expected to have a good working knowledge of EAD (Encoded Archival Description) and DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). The contractor should also have experience in electronic finding aid creation using ArchivesSpace and demonstrate good writing skills. Additional onsite general instructions and written guidelines and procedures will be provided to the contractor by the COTR (Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative). All work with NAA collections will be conducted on-site at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland.
METHODOLOGY This project specifically requires that the contractor process the records of the Society for American Archaeology, totaling approximately 200 linear feet and including a hard drive with born-digital files, and produce a detailed finding aid. Processing will include integrating multiple accessions, and arranging, rehousing, and describing the records. Additionally, the contractor will rehouse the Lewis Binford papers, totaling approximately 80 linear feet, and update the finding aid. The contractor is expected to complete processing work according to professional and current archival standards and best practices. The contractor is expected to complete the work with a high degree of independence.
PROJECT DELIVERABLES 1. The contractor will arrange and physically preserve archival records following NAA’s written processing procedures. 2. The contractor will create finding aids in NAA’s ArchivesSpace database and submit a PDF draft of the finding aid to the Project Manager for approval. 3. The contractor shall submit a monthly progress report to the Project Manager for review and approval.
WORK LOCATION AND SPACE The work shall take place in the offices of the National Anthropological Archives located at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland. Work shall take place primarily in clean, well-lit, ventilated, modern storage areas and processing work areas typical for archival materials with adequate workspace and computers. The contractor will be provided with a Smithsonian network account, and access to an email account, internet, Microsoft Office software, and NAA’s databases and templates.
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE The contractor should plan to start work around October 15, 2022 and complete the work by December 20, 2023, or when the 1800 hours have been expended. The contractor’s specific work schedule will be determined by mutual agreement between the COTR and the contractor and must occur within normal business hours (7:30am-6:00pm).
Interested parties should email Gina Rappaport at rappaportg@si.edu for information and instructions on submitting a quote.
Archives Gig 