Archives Technician

Job Description

Located within McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, the Health Sciences Library has played a central role in supporting health research and promoting student learning for more than 50 years.  Our commitment to lifelong and interdisciplinary learning has allowed us to build one of the most sought-after learning and collaboration spaces on campus.

Established in 1974, the Library’s Health Sciences Archives holds over 300 metres of records documenting the fascinating history of the health sciences in Hamilton over the past two centuries. Our collection contains information on a diverse range of topics including: the history of public health and medicine in Canada, the evolution of medical education, hospital architecture, the development of midwifery and nursing education, healthcare during wartime, the treatment of disease, and, developments in women’s and children’s healthcare. This rich collection is widely sought after by researchers around the world.

We are welcoming applications for a full-time Archives Technician to join our team!  This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced archives professional to join us in an exciting new role supporting McMaster faculty, researchers, and students.

Job Summary:

Reporting to the HSL Archivist, the Archives Technician will be responsible for supporting a full range of archival functions, including accessioning new acquisitions, arranging and describing records, digital preservation activities, digitization, reference support, records retrieval and re-shelving, supplies maintenance, fulfilling copy orders, exhibition curation, supervision of student workers, and other administrative tasks.

Purpose and Key Functions:

• Receive and accession new acquisitions according to internal procedures.
• Maintain physical control over archives storage by entering accurate storage locations in the archives database, determining where new acquisitions should be shelved, and coordinating the retrieval and re-shelving of archives and other material in the archives collections.
• Conduct the physical processing of archival collections including, but not limited to, re-housing materials and sorting and listing files.
• Make appraisal for selection recommendations to the supervisor regarding the retention value of records within a collection and whether to keep, destroy, or return to donor.
• In consultation with supervisor, arrange archives into comprehensive series that are intelligible to researchers and follow archival principles and theories.
• Conduct research to discover information about unidentified archival records and develop an understanding of the historical context for collections.
• Synthesize information from a variety of reliable resources to write administrative histories and biographical sketches.
• Write archival descriptions according to standardized formats and ensure their availability in electronic form.
• Digitize archival material in various formats and maintain metadata in accordance with internal procedures.
• Identify sensitive material and consult with supervisor regarding restrictions.
• Remain current with new rules and processes for archival descriptions and practices.
• Provide research help services to researchers including reference interviews via phone, e-mail, and in person regarding the collections at the archives and related materials internal or external to the University. Refer particularly complex inquiries to supervisor.
• Conduct web and database searches for archival material.
• Receive and resolve complaints regarding archival services. Escalate complaints to supervisor when necessary.
• Follow standard procedures to assist patrons in difficult situations by referring them to Security Services.
• Responsible for unlocking and opening the archives’ spaces, for monitoring while researchers are present to prevent accidental damage, vandalism, and theft of archival collections, and ensuring all patrons have exited the space prior to locking.
• Fulfill photocopying and digitization requests from researchers and coordinate their delivery
• Document reference interactions according to internal procedures.
• Train, supervise, and direct the work of work-study student employees, including monitoring the progress and quality of the work being completed.
• Support the supervisor with training, supervising, and directing the work of interns and new employees.
• Prepare documents outlining internal work-flows and procedures.
• Assist with curating physical and virtual exhibitions featuring holdings from the archives and History of Health and Medicine collection.
• Support digital preservation activities.
• Perform basic preservation and conservation activities, such as, encapsulation, cleaning and repair on a wide variety of material.
• Maintain and order archival and other supplies.
• Contribute to the creation of content to promote the archives’ collections and projects for a variety of sources including social media.
• Provide tours of the archives to students, researchers, and other visitors.

Full Salary Range: $26.14 – $39.35 (hourly)