College Archivist
- Employer
- Beloit College
- Location
- 700 College Street, Beloit, WI, USA
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- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Institution Type
- Four-Year Institution
Job Details
Working within an environment that is dynamic, positive, innovative, and responsive, the Beloit College Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) provides high-quality access to information services and technology resources. LITS is committed to providing leadership and services that enable students, faculty, and staff to creatively and productively enhance the College's academic, administrative, and co-curricular environments.
The College Archivist oversees all aspects of collection development and care for the Beloit College Archives and Special Collections, which feature a wide variety of materials including manuscripts, books and publications, memorabilia, photographs, and audiovisual material. These collections include materials from the College's history, the City of Beloit, the greater region, and donated special collections. The College Archivist provides leadership and direction for archive and special collection development decisions based on knowledge of institutional and regional history and culture, awareness of archival standards and trends, and understanding user needs. They are responsible for processing collections to archival standards, including providing access to collections through finding aids and developing accessible and well-organized digital collections of print and images. The Archivist will work closely with faculty and students to incorporate physical and digital primary source materials into classroom learning, assignments, and internships, and may engage in classroom teaching.
Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities
Collection Management
- Develop, assess, manage, and promote physical and born-digital collections.Implement and maintain a collections management system for the physical and digital holdings contained within the Beloit College Archives.Establish and document collections policies, maintenance, and retention schedules for physical and digital materials.Manage born-digital materials, including preservation, organization, and access.Evaluate existing and incoming archival collections/series for capacity to become digital.Identify archival materials in need of repair or preservation and carry out or recommend conservation measures.Arrange with college offices, faculty, and student groups to save and add appropriate materials to the Archives and maintain continuing liaison with each to ensure uninterrupted receipt.Assist in obtaining internal and external grant funding for collection development and maintenance, and to serve the educational mission of the college.
Research, Reference, and Instruction
- Develop and deliver instruction for classes and courses, connecting students to history through primary sources in the College Archives.Promote knowledge and use of the collections by offering presentations, talks, and tours, to campus and community groups and design both physical and digital exhibits.Assist patrons, including Beloit College students, faculty, staff as well as alumni, community members, and other researchers, in using the Archives, provide research consultation, conduct research to fulfill requests, and retrieve information and material as needed.Mentor students interested in pursuing careers in archives, libraries, and museums.Train and supervise student assistants, supervise student projects, academic internships, and participate in appropriate College programs related to archives and special collections.Teach occasional classes individually or in collaboration with faculty as well as actively partner with the Museum Studies program and with academic departments.
- Participate in library-wide planning, management, decision making, and formulation of library-wide policies and procedures.Collaborate on setting departmental goals, policies, procedures, practices, and workflows.Fosters user focused collaboration, diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.Prepare relevant statistical information and reports as needed.Lead one or more internal LITS work groups or project teams.
- Creates informative and engaging displays on a diverse range of topics relevant to the community.Provide professional development and serve as a resource for LITS staff on creating and delivering engaging instruction, research, and academic outreach for students.
- Creates and coordinates outreach and programming opportunities, collaborates with campus stakeholders, and participates in campus events. Leads outreach efforts by identifying and developing strategies to enhance perceptions of LITS and engagement with its resources, services, and programs.Conducts surveys, focus group sessions and market research among the library's various user populations to assess the quality and use of collections and services.Act as a liaison with certain departments and student life units, paying close attention to student diversity organizations and special populations such as students with learning differences, academically at-risk students, distance education students, international students, non-traditional adult undergraduates and employed professionals.
- Participate in library, Beloit College, and community meetings, events, and committeesEngage in professional development to keep abreast of trends, developments, best practices, and technologies as appropriate for this positionContribute to the profession through organizational work, presenting papers, and/or publishing
Credentials and Experience
- MLS from an ALA accredited Institution or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.Demonstrated archive experience with both physical and digital materials.Demonstrated experience in creating metadata descriptions, digitization, and care of born-digital materials.Demonstrated experience preparing and delivering academic content and working with faculty and students to incorporate archival materials into projects.
- Demonstrated experience accessioning, arranging, and describing both physical and born digital archival material.
Organization
Working at Beloit College
Beloit College was founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory. The early curriculum was built on the classical tradition, but students were given an unusual amount of freedom to choose their own courses. Today, Beloit is recognized for its longstanding commitment to curricular innovation, and its first-year initiatives and international education programs.
The Beloit College community is diverse and noted for its passionate engagement with ideas and the world. Its 1200 students are from nearly every state, the District of Columbia, and more than 40 nations. Twenty percent of its students are non-Caucasian; ten percent come from countries other than the United States. No more than ten percent of a graduating class is represented in any one of Beloit's majors.
98% of Beloit's 103 full-time faculty members hold a Ph.D. or the highest degree in their field. Teaching is the faculty's highest priority but all professors are active scholars and artists. Many are leaders in educational reform. Professors serve as mentors, guides, and partners on research projects and academic work. A strong tradition of student-teacher collaboration contributes to the college's lively intellectual community.
Beloit offers more than fifty majors, more than thirty minors, and a number of dual-degree and pre-professional programs. A flexible curriculum, grounded in rigorous study encourages independent research, fieldwork, and collaboration with peers and professors. Coursework is interdisciplinary, experiential, and global in scope. The average class size is 15 students; Beloit's student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1.
Beloit's wooded forty-acre campus includes twenty-eight buildings in a range of architectural styles; four buildings are listed on the National or State Register of Historic Places. The campus is marked by winding pathways, expansive lawns, displays of public art, and ancient Indian mounds.
The college's academic facilities include the internationally recognized Logan Museum of Anthropology, the Wright Museum or Art, a state of the art performing arts complex and research labs equipped with advanced technology. Beloit offers more than thirty international programs, dozens of domestic study programs, and hundreds of internships and field study programs.
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