Curator of Born Digital Special Collections

We are seeking a Curator of Born Digital Special Collections to play a pivotal role building and sustaining this transformation to meet the emerging needs of 21st century researchers while expanding collections of born digital and digitized material. Reporting to the Director of Special Collections and University Archives, the Curator of Born Digital Special Collections will lead the University libraries’ curation, management, and preservation of born-digital materials in its Special Collections. The Curator will work with other subject matter curators in SCUA, library staff, faculty, and external donors to accession, curate, describe, and preserve unique collections of born-digital materials in multiple formats. The Curator will lead the implementation and use of digital forensic and preservation tools in SCUA as well as a new Vanderbilt University Web-Archiving program with extensive collaboration with colleagues in the Digital Imaging and Preservation, Library Technology and Digital Services, and Library teams. The Curator will contribute to international efforts in digital preservation by being an active member of the Digital Preservation community, making use of Vanderbilt University’s membership of international groups and consortia including prospective membership of NDSA and the DPC, and contributing to community initiatives where appropriate.

The mission of the Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives is to collect, preserve, and provide access to Vanderbilt University’s impressive collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, memorabilia, and institutional archives. The SCUA team supplies primary resource material to a variety of local, national, and international scholars. The Curator of Born Digital Special Collections will assume a critical role in reshaping Vanderbilt’s special collections initiatives to meet the emerging needs of 21st-century researchers.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Identifies, selects, and acquires born digital materials for the library's special collections, in consultation with subject matter curators in SCUA, donors and other stakeholders.
• Collaborates with the director of SCUA and other SCUA/Library colleagues to develop policies, standards, and procedures for the accessioning, processing, and preservation of born digital materials in the special collection.
• Leads on the development and implementation of a new Vanderbilt University web-archiving program, using permission-based crawling wherever possible, and considering the use of third-party commercial web crawling and collection hosting services where appropriate, to create and curate a high quality and widely accessible web-archive of Vanderbilt University and other Nashville- and Tennessee-based websites.
• Makes use of Bit-Curator, DROID, CSV Validator, and other digital forensic and preservation tools, and lead the development of innovative methods for preserving and giving access to these materials. Leads the design, development and implementation of workflows and guidance to ensure the successful accessioning, processing, preservation, and access of born digital materials in the Vanderbilt Library Special Collections.
• In collaboration with subject matter curators and other library staff (including library and Vanderbilt IT teams), leads the practical operation of those workflows as implemented on the Vanderbilt Library IT systems.
• Helps other SCUA curators, librarians, and others to follow the guidance and meet the born-digital standards efficiently and effectively. Ensures that SCUA processes hybrid and born digital collections so that both physical and born digital materials keep their integrity, authenticity, and archival bonds.
• Works with metadata curators, librarians, and others to develop descriptive information to enhance discovery and access to born-digital special collections.
• Actively takes part in the international digital preservation community championing and using Vanderbilt University’s membership of groups and consortia including prospective membership of NDSA and the DPC. Leads Vanderbilts contribution to digital preservation community initiatives (e.g., by supplying novel file format signatures to the UK National Archives PRONOM database and/or Library of Congress Sustainable File Formats Initiative).
• Provides reference and research support to users of born digital materials.
• Participates in the library's outreach and fundraising activities to promote the acquisition and use of born digital collections.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in library and information science (with a specialization in archival work), archival studies, or a related field accredited by the relevant U.S. professional body (e.g., ALA, SAA) or international equivalent is required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills are required.
• Experience of collaborating with colleagues and stakeholders is required.
• Demonstrated knowledge of born digital materials, including file formats, metadata, and preservation issues is required.
• Familiarity with relevant standards and best practices for managing born digital materials in an archival context, (e.g., OAIS, NDSA, DPC RAM, PREMIS, RIC, DACS, and EAD) is required.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills are required.
• Familiarity with digital preservation tools and technologies (e.g., DROID, PRONOM, Bit-Curator, Preservica, Archivematica, JHOVE) is required.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team is required.
• Strong commitment to excellent user service is required.
• High attention to detail is required.
• Confidentiality in handling sensitive records is required.
• Ability to set and meet deadlines for completing projects is required.
• Experience working with born digital collections in an academic library or archive is preferred.
• Experience with ArchivesSpace for archival or specials collection cataloging is preferred.  
• Familiarity with one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, Ruby) and scripting tools is preferred.
• Experience with digital forensics and/or data recovery is preferred.
• Familiarity with copyright and intellectual property issues related to born digital materials is preferred.
• Working knowledge of intellectual property issues related to archives, libraries, and special collections and copyright issues associated with audio, video, print, and digital technologies is preferred.

Visit Job Website