Description:
Founded in 1974, Deakin is a public university in Victoria with 61,000 students across five campuses: Melbourne Burwood, Geelong Waurn Ponds, Geelong Waterfront, Warrnambool, and the online Campus. We are a progressive and open-minded university, with the highest student satisfaction in Victoria and consistently ranked in the top 1% of the world’s universities.
The Assistant Archivist works closely with the University Archivist to deliver archival services for Deakin and ensure Deakin Archives are high quality and best practice. The role is responsible for accessioning, processing, listing, boxing and digitising archival material as required, and maintaining archival repositories in line with archival standards and university policy. The role responds to complex archival enquiries and undertakes research for clients, digitisation on demand, and advice on Deakin’s history and historical context and therefore requires curiosity and an ability to develop a strong understanding of the historical context of the organisation. The position works with archives in all formats—in particular, paper, audio-visual materials and digital—and requires an understanding of preservation and archiving across various formats.
Your key responsibilities will include:
- Undertake appraisal of records and other material to assess for historical value or permanent record status, in line with legislative requirements, Public Record Office Victoria Standards and the standards of other relevant archival bodies such as the National Archives of Australia.
- Undertake complex archival enquiries and research requests, and provide assistance to clients, seeking feedback from clients regarding their satisfaction and perspective, and responding to feedback with openness and transparency
- Build new and productive relationships across the university, and seek to understand the university’s organisational and historical context, in which the archives are situated
- Advise and provide expertise in digital preservation approaches, trends and best practice, and develop a strong digital archiving and digital preservation foundation for Deakin Archives
- Develop new ways of exposing archival records and building engagement with the archival collection, including through exhibitions, promotions and social media
- Implement the Archives policies, procedures and guidelines, and assist the University Archivist in the ongoing maintenance and development of policies
- Develop and promote archival finding aids, and maintain archival catalogues and archive management systems, ensuring a high level of data quality and accuracy
- Undertake digitisation of archival records, and manage the digitisation of non-traditional archive formats, such as audio-visual materials
To be successful, you’ll have:
- Degree and/or postgraduate qualifications in library, information science or archives conferring eligibility for professional membership of Australian Society of Archivists, Associate membership of the Australian Library and Information Association, or an equivalent combination of relevant experience and/or training
- Experience in the appraisal and sentencing of records, and the application of Public Record Office Victoria standards as they relate to permanent records and archives
- Understanding of digital preservation trends, approaches and best practice, and experience in archiving non-traditional, AV and/or digital formats
- Thorough understanding of archival standards and legislative requirements, such as from PROV, the NAA and other relevant bodies, and how they are applied in archives
- Experience in describing and cataloguing archives using the Australian Series System as well as use of an EDRMS and/or archival management systems, finding aids and catalogues
- Experience of working in universities, or in similar large and complex organisations