Archivist

Date Posted: 03/14/2024
Req ID: 36519
Faculty/Division: UofT Mississauga
Department: UTM: Library
Campus: University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM)
Position Number: 00047547

Description:

About us:

U of T Mississauga—the second largest campus of Canada’s top-ranked university and the only research university in Ontario’s booming Peel Region—is one of the world’s great catalysts of human potential.

Our employee community hums with the energy of 3,400 faculty, librarians and staff, who power our campus with curiosity, connection and care. We work together to spark life-changing research and innovation, make an indelible mark on the world by building equitable cities and societies, enable healthy lives, create a sustainable future and ignite entrepreneurship. Above all, we prioritize student success, and seek to give our 16,500 students the lift of a lifetime through learning and discovery. We love to open opportunities available nowhere else for our community to achieve their ambitions and make their unique contributions to Canada and the world.

This work all comes together on a spectacularly green campus, alongside the Missinihe-ziibi (Trusting Creek or Credit River), where we seek to honour truth, reciprocity and reconciliation on the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. We’re thrilled to welcome those who want to learn more about us and to be part of what we do.

The University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) system is the largest academic library in Canada and is consistently ranked among the top-10 research libraries in North America. The system consists of 40 libraries located on three University campuses: St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough that together provide access to more than 12 million print volumes, millions of electronic resources in various formats, and almost 30,000 linear metres of archival materials. The Libraries’ data centre houses more than 200 servers with a storage capacity of 1.5 petabytes.

The U of T Mississauga Library (UTM Library), located in the award-winning Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre (HMALC), is a leading, world-class Library committed to providing students with an open and collaborative environment - one that embeds rich information and technology resources, integrates expert services into a dynamic and imaginative experience, and inspires and facilitates learning. The UTM Library offers inspiring study and research spaces, a dedicated team of Librarians and Library staff, and a suite of public, instruction and research support services that support faculty, staff and students. The UTM Library also provides community access to its rare and unique materials in the Archives & Special Collections’ Reading Room, including the Syd Bolton Collection of video games and the Abualy Alibhai Aziz Collection of South Asian literature.

Your opportunity:

The UTM Library offers a dynamic and professional environment that fosters a culture built on respect, accountability, teamwork and a shared commitment to customer service. This position will collaborate extensively with various Library units in offering innovative and comprehensive solutions for a variety of Library initiatives. Our core mission is to support the learning, teaching and research needs of all UTM undergraduate and graduate programs.

Reporting to the Head, Collections & Digital Scholarship, the Archivist is responsible for contributing to and creating archival policies, procedures, and standards for the use, storage, and preservation of materials for archives and special collections belonging to the UTM Library. As part of the Collections & Digital Scholarship Unit of the Library, the incumbent will assist with the accession, arrangement, description, preservation, storage, and digitization of the Library's archives and special collections, including original descriptive cataloguing of resources and archive materials, and provide relevant information for the development of promotional materials. The incumbent will foster positive relationships in working with donors to acquire materials, including probing for information, preparing deed of gift, and drafting gift agreements. The incumbent will also process items in the physical and digital collections and provide reference search activities for researchers and users via the Library’s Reading Room and digital collection website.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Implementing plans and process improvements for collections acquisition activities
• Verifying that meta data has been entered according to established industry standards
• Meeting with potential donors to assess materials and reach agreement on the donation of material to the archives
• Assessing and determining the condition of archival materials
• Creating finding aids to ensure collection materials are accessible
• Processing items in the physical and digital collections for researchers and users
• Performing reference search activities
• Keeping well-informed on applicable copyright, access and privacy laws

Essential Qualifications:

• Master's Degree with specialization in Archival Studies, or acceptable combination of equivalent experience.
• Minimum of four (4) years in a professional environment (e.g. Libraries, Museums, non-profit organizations, community organizations, or corporations) including work in archives or related information and collections management.
• Experience creating finding aids to ensure collection materials are accessible by applying established standards (e.g., RAD, ISAD(G), and ISAAR(CPF))
• Experience in archives or related information management environment using web-based archival description software (e.g., AtoM)
• Demonstrated initiative and ability to present innovative solutions to challenging problems
• Effective interpersonal skills to develop good working relations among project teams, staff, clients, peers and vendors
• Demonstrated time management skills with ability to handle and prioritize a high volume of demands and work under pressure

Assets (Nonessential):

• Experience with digital asset management systems and content management systems in academic library environments (e.g., Drupal, Omeka, and Islandora)
• Experience with metadata schemes currently in use within the academic community is desirable (e.g., Dublin Core, MARC, RDA, RDF, MODS, VRA Core, and others)
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail
• Demonstrable productivity and ability to deal with a large volume of materials
• Demonstrable, superior organizational and time management skills
• Demonstrable initiative, knowledge of XML-based formats

To be successful in this role you will be:

• Approachable
• Meticulous
• Organized
• Possess a positive attitude
• Problem solver
• Responsible

Closing Date: 04/04/2024, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: USW
Appointment Type: Budget - Continuing
Schedule: Monday to Friday 8:45 am to 5:00 pm
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone:
USW Pay Band 12 -- $78,308 with an annual step progression to a maximum of $100,144. Pay scale and job class assignment is subject to determination pursuant to the Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Maintenance Protocol.
Job Category: Library Services

Lived Experience Statement
Candidates who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups are encouraged to apply, and their lived experience shall be taken into consideration as applicable to the posted position.