Contract Assistant Archivist

Heritage Professionals (HP) is a heritage consulting firm situated in Toronto. It was established in early 2012 and specializes in a variety of different heritage services in the areas of archives, information management and curatorial work. For more details, please consult the corporate website below.

Description & Duties

Heritage Professionals is seeking two individuals to take part in a project for our Ottawa-based client, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). This initiative represents phase II of a two-year project.

The first phase involved archiving 90 linear metres of records housed in CUPW’s archival room in the headquarters building. The materials that were deemed archival were arranged, preserved, and described according to archival standards, captured within CUPW’s InMagic database, and moved to their new state of the art, purpose-built archival facility in Nepean.

This initiative will involve assisting the archival team with research, the selection of records, physical processing, preservation, physical arrangement and the writing of RAD compliant descriptions at the item and file levels for approximately 120 linear metres of records. The materials are in a variety of media and formats housed in a climate controlled vault within the archives. The work will be carried out in a professional manner and in accordance with archival standards.

The archival assistants will report to the HP Principal, Ellen Scheinberg, who will be available to provide support, liaise with the other members of the team and the client, conduct quality control, and ensure that the project is progressing according to the timeline. A senior archivist will be on site to provide expertise and answer any archival questions that arise. Our special advisor, Iona McCraith, will be involved in providing her expertise when it comes to preservation and conservation issues.

The project will take place in the client’s archival facility in Nepean and will likely be undertaken from late February to November 2023. The contract can either be full-time or part-time, depending on the needs of the successful candidates, and will run for approximately eight to nine months.

Qualifications

The preferred candidates will have a completed master’s degree in Archival Studies, Information Studies, Public History or the equivalent background and training. Previous practical work experience in an archive would be a an asset.
Some of the required qualifications, skills, and characteristics that the successful candidates must possess include:

 Familiarity with multi-level archival arrangement and description according to RAD;
 Proven research skills and experience;
 Knowledge of archival processing procedures and preservation;
 Experience working with both textual and graphic materials. Some experience with AV materials and artefacts would be an asset;
 Proven expertise working with Microsoft Suite software;
 Familiarity with scanners and digitization protocols is beneficial;
 Experience with archival databases such as DB Textworks is an asset;
 Strong communication (written and oral) and time management skills is essential;
 Proven capacity to manage multiple tasks at once and meet strict deadlines;
 Be detail oriented and have a high level of accuracy vis-à-vis work products;
 Capable of working with a team as well as the ability to take and respond effectively to direction from the supervisor and senior
staff;
 Facility to conduct work in an independent fashion when required;
 Ability to lift boxes and items up t0 30 lbs.