Digitization Coordinator (17813)

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Our diverse community of students, faculty, and staff represent every state and more than 150 countries. Our internationally recognized faculty are today's thought leaders in the areas of public policy, law, the arts, communications, international development, and more. Our staff are innovative, service-oriented, and dedicated to moving the university towards achieving its strategic goals. We are committed to an excellent experience for all of our students, faculty and staff and share a passion for creating change through our knowledge and our work.

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About the Department/Unit

The University Library’s role in sharing information as widely as possible is central to American University’s culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion – and at the heart of what we do. Our team is constantly learning and growing in order to meet the ever changing landscape of library services. The Archives & Special Collections department is designed as a small, collaborative working environment. The incumbent of this position will have the ability to mentor student employees, work with rare, valuable, and unique materials of many formats, and build a scalable digitization workflow based on their expertise. This job is perfect for a detail-oriented, solutions-minded, and collaborative individual.

Summary/Objective

The Digitization Coordinator manages the digitization of the American University Library, with a concentration on Archives and Special Collections holdings, based on unit-priorities and reference requests. The incumbent develops and maintains in-house and vendor digitization workflows for paper-based, audio, film and video, photographic, and ephemeral items. This position also collaborates with Technical Services to complete metadata and upload digital collections to enhance discoverability via the Library’s platforms. Additionally, the incumbent hires, trains, and supervises hourly student assistants to perform digitization work and quality control files.

Essential Functions

1. Under the leadership of the Head Archivist for Special Collections and Digital Initiatives, prioritize and serve as project leader for internal and external digitization projects of the University Library focusing on archives and special collections materials to provide digital access to AU collections currently in other formats. Investigate, evaluate, test and deploy various methodologies, standards, equipment and software in the creation of digital collections and their long-term preservation. Negotiate and monitor external contracts for digitization. Establish metadata and digitization standards and ensure that digital content is created according to standards. Devise and document operating procedures and workflows, establish quality control procedures, and supervise project personnel, in accordance with best practices. Recommend purchase of equipment and software to Head Archivist for Special Collections and Digital Initiatives.
2. Hire, supervise, evaluate, schedule and train digitization project employees. Instruct them in digitization, quality control, and metadata best practices. Explain the archives procedures and computer software and databases to student employees. Monitor their progress and answer their questions. Allocate work based on unit priorities.
3. Coordinate, manage, and prioritize archives digitization on demand program and reference scan requests. Provide reference services to AU faculty, students and staff as well as external researchers. Conduct requested research and retrieves archival records and special collections materials. Inquiries are submitted in person, by telephone, or via email.
4. Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Reporting directly to this position are part-time student assistants.

Work Environment

• Onsite presence will be required for this position.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

• Full Time, 35 hours a week, Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
• Coordinator/Analyst A
• Non-Exempt
• This is a union-eligible position.

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent
• 3-5 years of relevant experience

Required Skills

• Perform basic image editing in Photoshop, including cropping, straightening, color-correcting, embedding metadata, and generating derivatives.
• Perform basic audio and video editing in programs like Audacity and Final Cut Pro, such as trimming and clipping, adjusting pitch and tempo, generating derivatives, and embedding metadata.
• Demonstrated effective oral and written communication skills.
• Interpersonal skills in individual and collaborative group settings with both technical and non-technical people.
• Plan and develop projects from beginning to end that are 6 to 9 months in length, delegating tasks, and supervising technical specialists.
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail; ability to handle high volume of activity with a high degree of accuracy.
• Meet organizational competencies identified by the Library and University.
• Experience managing digital assets.
• Knowledge of federal and state copyright and privacy regulations.
• Ability to work with a number of different information formats such as books, manuscripts, electronic records, audio-visual materials, and foreign language materials.
• Intermediate to advanced level computer skills are required as are a familiarity with Windows based programs including database and spreadsheet software packages.
• Knowledge of technical rules and standards for library cataloging, including national cataloging rules and standards, local practices, MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) tagging, International Standard Bibliographic Description, Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), subject analysis, metadata, and structure and coding of both local and national cataloging systems.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Master's degree or equivalent
• Ability to research technical problems and identify solutions independently using web-based resources.
• Experience with installation, configuration and troubleshooting software applications and hardware peripherals.
• Demonstrated knowledge of current and emerging instructional technologies.
• Demonstrated understanding of the mission and functions of a research library and information needs of academic users.
• Experience planning, coordinating, and implementing effective programs, and services, ensuring that objectives are met within time, budget, and quality targets.
  
  

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

• Must be able to lift items up to 50 pounds and retrieve materials from shelves that are seven feet high.
• Hiring offers for this position are contingent on successful completion of a background check.
• To ensure the health and safety of our community AU requires COVID-19 vaccinations for faculty and staff. Click here to learn more about our health and safety directive .

Others

• Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Benefits

AU offers a competitive benefits package including a 200% matching retirement plan, tuition benefits for full-time staff and their families, several leadership development certificates, and has been recognized by the American Heart Association as a fit-friendly worksite.Click here to learn about American University's unique benefit options .

Current American University Employees

If you are a current employee at American University, please log intoAsuccessfulU through themyAU portal . Once in AsuccessfulU, please select the Careers tile which will take you to our internal career page.

Contact Us

For more information or assistance with the American University careers site, email theworkline@american.edu .

American University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution that operates in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The university does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, personal appearance, gender identity and expression, family responsibilities, political affiliation, source of income, veteran status, an individual’s genetic information or any other bases under federal or local laws (collectively "Protected Bases") in its programs and activities.

Nearest Major Market: Washington DC