Archivist for Digital Collections

Responsibilities: 

Curtis will celebrate its Centenary in 2024-2025, which will provide exciting opportunities for archivists to educate students, faculty, staff, and the extended community about the history of Curtis, while furthering the Rock Resource Center’s goals in archival preservation and management.

Because of Curtis’s relatively small size as an institution, the Archivist will have opportunities to contribute to a number of professional responsibilities, including:

• Process, preserve, arrange, and describe born-digital and physical collections
• Prioritize collections for digitization
• Populate the digital collections in our asset management system
• Provide access to research materials for remote and in-person patron requests
• Support Curtis marketing and communications departments by providing access to digital and physical archival materials
• Maintain the Curtis archives social media accounts and blog
• Assist with community outreach projects
• Contribute to Curtis publications
• Collaborate with faculty to introduce the archives to students
• Archive Curtis’s website and relevant web content
• Apply best practices for the creation of metadata and standard vocabularies for maintaining archives catalogs and public user interfaces
• Other duties as assigned

Curtis welcomes applications from people with a wide variety of experience and backgrounds, who are eager to work hard, learn, and contribute.

Required Qualifications

• MLIS or equivalent degree from an ALA-accredited degree program and/or archivist certification, or demonstrated comparable skills
• At least two years of experience working in an archives
• Working familiarity with archival software systems and/or databases
• A commitment to professional development through conferences, coursework, and additional certifications
• A commitment to the highest standards of professional integrity

Preferred Qualifications

• Subject knowledge in music and/or Philadelphia history
• Experience working in an institution of higher learning or comparable cultural institution
• Familiarity with archives systems such as Preservica, ArchivesSpace, and ContentDM

The ideal candidate must exhibit:

• A positive, “can-do” attitude.
• Devotion and dedication to Curtis, its students, alumni, and parents.
• Passion for their work, and contribution to the field and greater good.
• Commitment and accountability for their work, and their ability to effect change.
• Desire and willingness to collaborate, think creatively, and make data-driven decisions.
• Respect, courtesy, and patience for colleagues, other staff, faculty, patrons, core constituents, and volunteers.
• An eagerness to make Curtis a more diverse and inclusive institution.

• Position is located in Philadelphia
• Standard exertional requirements for light work in a routine office environment
• The position is eligible for some hybrid flexibility
• Visa sponsorship is not available for this position; applicants must be authorized to work in the United States for any employer at the time of hire
• COVID-19 vaccination is a requirement for all positions at the Curtis Institute of Music and all new hires are expected to be fully vaccinated before beginning work

• $55,000 – $65,000 gross annually salary, commensurate with experience
• The Curtis Institute of Music offers a number of perks for full-time staff including free meals on campus, a wellness stipend, and mass transit support with employer-sponsored, all-access SEPTA Key Advantage program enrollment
• Curtis offers a comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees including options for health, dental, and vision insurance, basic term life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and short and long-term disability insurance, supplemental insurance options, and parental leave