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Digital Collections Archivist

Digital Collections Archivist

  1. DEPT OF ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION
Posted on: 01/25/2024
  1. Full-time

Location

MANHATTAN

  1. Exam may be required

Department

BUSINESS INFORMATION TECH

$61,469.00 – $87,863.00

Job Description

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) protects public health and the environment by supplying clean drinking water, collecting and treating wastewater, and reducing air, noise and hazardous materials pollution. The Department manages the City’s water supply, which provides more than one billion gallons of high quality drinking water daily to more than half the population of New York State. It builds and maintains the City’s water distribution network, fire hydrants, storm and sanitary sewage collection systems and Bluebelt and green infrastructure systems and manages 14 in-City wastewater resource recovery facilities as well as seven wastewater resource recovery facilities in the upstate watershed. DEP also implements federal Clean Water Act rules and regulations, handles hazardous materials emergencies and toxic site remediation, oversees asbestos monitoring and removal, enforces the City’s air and noise codes, bills and collects on approximately 836,000 water and sewer accounts and manages citywide water conservation programs.

Records and Archives Management (RAM), within the Bureau of Business Information Technology, collects, organizes, protects, and provides access to records having long-term business and historical value to the agency and the City of New York. It is a valuable resource for information about DEP including the work of predecessors that planned and built the city’s water supply and delivery systems dating back to the 19th century. RAM supports the agency and its employees to manage records effectively and in compliance with DEP and citywide policies. The team’s ongoing projects improve access to information and facilitate the planning of billion-dollar capital construction and rehabilitation projects, as well as land use activities, facilities maintenance, and other operations.

Reporting to the Director of Records and Archives Management, major responsibilities of the Digital Collections Archivist include administration of the Digital Asset Management system (Extensis Portfolio), directing digitization projects, acquiring and processing born-digital records, and implementing a strategy for preserving digital assets. This position will monitor system hardware and storage needs and interface with the agency’s Information Technology group on behalf of the unit.

This position will be based at the DEP Archive in Manhattan with the requirement to travel periodically to DEP headquarters in Queens and occasionally to offices and plants around the city and upstate to survey records and meet with employees.

Responsibilities:
- Administer digital asset management system including service contracts and software upgrades.
- Develop, document, and implement workflows and procedures for accessioning and processing digital content.
- Accession and process born-digital records from agency creators (including public affairs photography, capital construction photography, and publications); lead efforts to locate and transfer high value digital records from agency creators to archive.
- Develop and document digitization workflows. Plan and direct digitization projects and perform ad-hoc scanning as required. Oversee in-house and vendor-provided digitization.
- Responsible for digitization equipment maintenance, calibration, service contracts, and replacement over time.
- Hire, train, and supervise student workers, including quality assurance, troubleshooting scanning and software issues, and ensuring deadlines are met.
- Perform quality control of digitized materials and metadata records.
- Apply metadata schemas and produce metadata guidelines when needed.
- Collaborate on the development of metadata schemas and controlled vocabularies.
- Implement a strategy to preserve digital assets.
- Oversee hardware and software needs such as servers, storage, and support contracts; plan for growth and replacement.
- Responsible for data backup system implementation and improvement.
- Maintain and report metrics on digitization projects, born-digital acquisitions, and other significant information that demonstrates work progress and the merits of the unit’s digital program.
- Fulfill agency obligation to Local Law 11 of 2003 which requires city agencies to transfer electronic copies of required reports to the Department of Records and Information Services.


Minimum Qualifications

1. A master's degree from an accredited college in Library Science, Archival Science, American History, Political Science or a related area, plus two years of full-time experience in archival or library science, one year of which must have been in a supervisory capacity of incumbents performing at a professional level; or
2. Education and/or experience equivalent to "1" above. However, all candidates must have a master's degree from an accredited college and the one year of supervisory experience as described in "1" above.


Preferred Skills

- Desire and ability to work in a highly collaborative environment. - Demonstrated experience writing and editing detailed collection guides, procedures, and other work documents using plain language that is clear, concise, organized and appropriate for the intended audience. - Strong planning and organizational skills. - Creative thinker with superior problem-solving skills. - Aptitude for learning new skills and systems. - Strong sense of accountability. - Ability to communicate effectively on technology issues with technical and non-technical staff. - Organized, detailed and able to manage workload across multiple projects to meet deadlines. - Ability to communicate information and ideas verbally and in writing, and professionally with a high attention to detail and accuracy. - This is a physically active job that requires ability to push, lift and shelve boxes of records up to 30lbs, bending and kneeling and using step ladders, and moving wide-format drawings in and out of flat files. - Ability to remain stationary for extended periods of time, operating computers and scanning equipment. - May on occasion be required to use personal protective equipment (PPE) such as hard hat, eye protection, and/or gloves when surveying records at some DEP facilities. - Archive is located in a warehouse environment with collection storage and offices.
55a Program

This position is also open to qualified persons with a disability who are eligible for the 55-a Program. Please indicate at the top of your resume and cover letter that you would like to be considered for the position through the 55-a Program.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness

As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/
Residency Requirement

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.
Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

Job ID

580340

Title code

60217

Civil service title

ASSOCIATE PUBLIC RECORDS OFFIC

Title classification

Competitive-1

Business title

Digital Collections Archivist

  1. Experienced (non-manager)

Number of positions

1

Work location

420 East 38Th St.

  1. Technology, Data & Innovation
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