Processing Archivist

WHEATON ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS – PROCESSING ARCHIVIST

Position Summary

The Wheaton Library and Archives seeks a skilled, collaborative, innovative, and enthusiastic professional for a Processing Archivist position. This role plays a critical part in the Archives & Special Collections’ mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible Wheaton College’s institutional archives and special collections, ensuring long-term access, organization, and stewardship of materials and discoverability for diverse users. The Processing Archivist works collegially and collaboratively within the Archives & Special Collections to ensure excellence and integrity in its collections, services, and programs, and across the Library to promote its mission and values. In partnership with colleagues, the Processing Archivist will plan and manage large and small-scale processing projects, accession new materials, supervise student workers, coordinate with donors, and ensure timely access to archival materials accessioned by Wheaton’s archival repositories. The Processing Archivist will receive all necessary training as well as ongoing mentoring and professional development support. The position is full time and will pay $55-60,000 annually.

Under the general supervision of the Head Archivist, the successful candidate will:   

• Arrange, rehouse, and preserve archival records, working across diverse physical and digital formats, in accordance with nationally accepted archival principles, standards, and best practices.
• Describe archival collections according to nationally accepted archival standards, generating EAD-encoded finding aids in the repository's collections management database, ArchivesSpace, and creating records in MARC format to upload to the Library's online public access catalog.
• Appraise and accession new collection materials, exercising professional judgement to ascertain the ongoing research value of new collections while faithfully and independently representing administrative, legal, and descriptive information about new materials in ArchivesSpace.
• Contribute to management and control activities, including collections assessment, stacks and equipment maintenance, space planning, and archival supplies monitoring.
• Serve on cross-department initiatives, including digital exhibits and preservation activities, contributing to preservation and reformatting activities. 
• Participate in unit-wide meetings, decision-making, and planning activities. 
• Supervise, train, and manage archival student workers. 
• Provide Manuscripts Reading Room desk coverage on occasion, and support reference and research services as needed.

This job description is intended to represent key areas of responsibilities; specific assignments may vary from time to time, and other duties may be assigned.