Senior Manager, Archival Processing

Department: Collections

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Library Services Center

Reporting To: William Stingone

Compensation: $100,000 - $108,000 / year

Description

Overview
The New York Public Library (NYPL) seeks a proven and collaborative leader to expand and strengthen its current operations devoted to archival processing. The Senior Manager of Archival Processing will provide vision, leadership, and oversight for a team that processes archives held and acquired by the curatorial divisions at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Library for the Performing Arts ensuring timely access to the Library’s special collections.   

The position, reporting to the Associate Director for Special Collections Processing, will manage the Archival Processing unit, supervise and train professional and non-professional staff in the processing of archival collections, work closely with curatorial leads to ensure alignment of archival processing approaches and priorities, manage the archival processing queue, set benchmarks for staff and ensure timely processing of new acquisitions and other priority projects, oversee the review and revision of finding aids and catalog records for archival collections to ensure accuracy and adherence to national and local standards, and lead the development and documentation of NYPL’s archival processing best practices.
While based at the Library Services Center (LSC) in Long Island City, Queens, the Senior Manager works across the organization to establish collaborative relationships that unify and strengthen archival processing and the Library’s stewardship efforts.
We are looking for someone we can count on to:
Own:

• Plan, coordinate, and effectively manage the department's day-to-day operations to advance archival processing priorities and institutional goals.

Teach:

• Develop, maintain, and communicate standards and best practices for archival processing while fostering a community of practice that values problem-solving, collaboration, and innovation.
• Inform stakeholders across NYPL about ongoing developments and strategic plans for archival processing and develop new staff engagement and communication strategies.

Learn:

• Keep abreast of developments in the area of archival description, proposing new methods and approaches when appropriate.

Improve:

• Clarify policies, optimize processes, and strengthen communication channels and staff engagement to help the staff work better together and with partners throughout the organization
• Evaluate current departmental structure and reporting lines and propose short- and long-term changes.
• Assess, establish, and measure the effectiveness of workflows drawing on the use of emerging technologies and aligning with best practices.

Some expectations for this role are that within:
1 month, this person will:

• Meet with archival processing staff and curatorial partners to assess the effectiveness of archival processing workflows, prioritization, and department structure.

3 months, this person will:

• Propose improvements to department structure and staffing based on evaluation of current structure, emerging institutional priorities, and possible team growth supported by potential grant funding.
• Develop improved methods of communication with curatorial partners.
• In collaboration with the Associate Director for Special Collections Processing, develop and share processing queues for the next 2-3 years that reflect curatorial and institutional priorities.

6 months and beyond, this person will:

• Develop and document a plan to address archival processing long-term and near-term goals, including new acquisition processing, backlog processing, data remediation and migration projects, and new initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Plan, coordinate, and manage workflows of the unit based on curatorial priorities and institutional goals
• Supervise and train professional and non-professional staff (currently 10 FTE) in the processing of archival collections
• Work closely with curatorial leads to ensure alignment of archival processing approaches and priorities
• Manage the archival processing queue, setting benchmarks for staff and ensuring timely processing of new acquisitions and other priority projects
• Oversee the review and revision of finding aids and catalog records for archival collections to ensure accuracy and adherence t