Job Opening Title: Contract Processing Archivist
Employer Name: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Job Location: Washington, DC
Application Deadline: November 21, 2022
Salary Range:
Years of experience required: 2
Job Description (if URL to posting not available). Please include instructions for how to apply.: The Archives of American Art (AAA) has a need to procure 1700 hours of professional archival services from an independent contractor to process archival collections, each ranging in size from 2-5 linear feet. 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 AAA’s internal policies, procedures, guidelines, and established workflows. Processing work will include the production of high quality DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) finding aids ready to be deployed to AAA’s website.
The selected contractor is expected to be a trained professional archivist with at least two past projects that included processing, preserving, surveying, or assessing archival and manuscript collections documenting American art or cultural history. Additional onsite general instructions and written guidelines and procedures will be provided to the contractor by the COTR (Contract Technical Representative).
METHODOLOGY
This project specifically requires that the contractor process collections and produce detailed online finding aids. The collections document the lives of American artists and may include letters, diaries, scrapbooks, writings, project files, sales and exhibition records, photographs, sketches and sketchbooks, exhibition catalogs, and posters.
The contractor is expected to complete archival processing work according to professional and current archival standards and best practices, addressing the individual needs of each collection. Processing work is defined as organizing, arranging, sorting, identifying, preserving, and describing the archival collection. The contractor is expected to complete the work with a high degree of independence after initial consultation.
For each collection processed, the contractor will create a finding aid according to archival standards and best practices that includes 1) a narrative about the overall scope and content of the collection; 2) individual series descriptions; 3) a detailed biographical note about the collection creator; and 4) a complete container and folder listing. Significant names of correspondents and subjects will be identified and noted within the various descriptive components. Good writing skills are essential. The contractor must exhibit a good working knowledge of the EAD (Encoded Archival Description) format and DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). The contractor should also have experience in electronic finding aid creation using spreadsheets, Archivists’ Toolkit, or ArchivesSpace software.
It is estimated that the contractor will process the collections at an average rate of 5-7 hours per linear foot.
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE
The contractor should plan to start work on a mutually agreed upon start date after the signing of the purchase order and complete the work by January 5, 2024, or when the 1700 hours have been expended. The contractor is expected to work approximately 35-40 hours per week during normal business hours (between 7:30am-6:00pm, Monday-Friday).
Interested parties should email Erin Kinhart at kinharte@si.edu for information and instructions on submitting a quote.
Individuals and companies that want to do business with U.S. government agencies, including the Smithsonian Institution, are required to maintain active and valid registrations in the System for Award Management (SAM). Registration with SAM is free and accomplished via https://www.sam.gov.
Archives Gig 