Missing Voices Archivist

Function of the Position:

The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC) at American Ancestors is a premier archive and educational center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and illuminating Jewish history and heritage. The JHC’s archival collections specialize in New England Jewish history of both families and organizations, engages researchers in the study of Jewish history, connects individuals and families with their heritage, and informs audiences of all backgrounds about the American Jewish experience.

The JHC has an opening for a part-time Missing Voices Archivist, who will be responsible for processing archival collections that relate to people and communities that are under-represented in the JHC archives. The Missing Voices Archivist will work with the Senior Archivist to determine processing priorities among JHC’s current collections and help identify prospective individual and organizational donors who may have collections relevant to the project. This is a highly collaborative position that works closely with the whole JHC team. The successful candidate will be proactive; be comfortable taking initiative; have experience and interest in archival processing and outreach; have knowledge of the local Jewish community; and, as needed, help with content creation for social media and archival reference questions.

This exciting opportunity is a non-exempt, hourly position located at our beautiful headquarters on Newbury Street in Boston.

Among some of the benefits offered to part-time staff are:

• Paid Time off that accrues at 1 hour of earned PTO for every 26 hours worked; accrual of up to 70 hours per year
• Employee Assistance Program- employer funded
• Family Membership in American Ancestors
• Discounts on merchandise
• MBTA pass program (employee-paid, pre-tax)
• Cultural institutions reciprocal admissions

Duties and Responsibilities:

Collections

• Arranges, rehouses, and describes archival collections.
• Creates and encodes finding aids.
• In collaboration with the Senior Archivist, makes decisions on project processing priorities and, when appropriate, digitization priorities.

Outreach

• In partnership with the Senior Archivist, identifies and cultivates relationships with potential collection donors and recommends areas of collection growth and expansion, with an emphasis on under-represented voices.
• Provides reference services to both on-site and remote researchers as needed.
• Identifies new content from project collections to share on JHC social media, in programming, and in educational contexts, as applicable.

Other

• Collaborates with other JHC and American Ancestors staff on projects as required.
• Attends/staffs JHC and American Ancestors events as needed.
• Contributes, as needed, to the development of grant proposals and budgets.
• Attends weekly JHC staff meetings and other American Ancestors meetings as required.
• As part of a team, actively participates in the strategic advancement of the Jewish Heritage Center.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education level for the position:

ALA-accredited Master’s degree in Library and Information Science with a concentration in archives or an equivalent accredited degree with formal training in archival theory and practice.

Skill and Qualifications for the position:

• 2+ years of archival work with demonstrated processing experience.
• Working knowledge of professional archival standards, particularly DACS and AAT.
• Computing and technical skills (Microsoft office, XML, HTML).
• Experience in encoding finding aids.
• Experience with online collection management resources, such as ArchivesSpace.
• Interest in Jewish history and knowledge of and connection to the New England Jewish community.
• Excellent communication and writing skills.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team.

Please send resume and a compelling cover letter to, Michelle Major, Director of Human Resources [email protected].

Please include your last name and Missing Voices Archivist in the subject of your email.

No phone calls please.

Grade 18 $25.00 per hour, 20 hours per week.