P/T - Cataloging & Metadata Lib, Ctr for Jewish History (NY)

Job Announcement Cataloging and Metadata Librarian

The Center for Jewish History (NYC | cjh.org) is the collaborative home to five in-house partners—American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. When the Center opened its doors eighteen years ago, it made a commitment to preserve the collections housed within its walls and make them accessible to scholars, students, and diverse audiences by implementing a unique, shared services model across all five partners.

The Center for Jewish History seeks a creative and forward-thinking individual that will serve as the Cataloging and Metadata Librarian, dedicated to describing and providing access to physical and digitized collections. The successful candidate will become an integral element in a thriving digitization program that already includes over 40 TB of digital assets available through Center library systems.

The Cataloging and Metadata Librarian will report to the Senior Manager for Metadata and Discovery. Metadata and Discovery Services is tasked with coordinating the interoperability and integration between Center systems that control, describe, preserve, and provide access to the rich physical and digital holdings of the five Partner institutions.

The part-time position offers a competitive hourly rate for up to 25 hours weekly, ideal for a recent library and information science graduate interested in describing a variety of material in an archival and special collections environment.

Responsibilities:

 Create or enhance existing metadata for digital assets from online catalog and other sources to promote discovery and access to digital assets via an asset management and preservation system.
 Ingest digital assets and associated metadata into digital asset management and preservation system.
 Apply cataloging standards such as AACR2, RDA, DCRM, LCSH, and MARC21 to cataloging rare and special collections materials, informed by best practices and standards for museums, libraries and archives.
 Utilize tools such as OCLC Connexion, MarcEdit, and Cataloger’s Desktop to perform original and complex copy cataloging.
 Analyze and adapt new or existing metadata standards and relevant thesauri, as required by special projects.
 Track progress and assist with reporting statistics as necessary.
 Collaborate with staff of partner organizations on shared projects.
 Stay abreast of developing standards and practices in the field of digital cultural content and metadata creation.

Required Qualifications:

 Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library school or similar graduate-level training, such as archival or information science.
 Minimum of 1-2 years experience creating description for manuscripts, archives, or special collections materials.
 Familiarity with current descriptive best practices and standards related to digitized material from libraries, archives and museums.
 Ability to handle multiple ongoing projects and prioritize as necessary.
 Excellent communication and writing skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

 Comfort using and thinking in Extensible Mark-up Language (XML), including Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT); schemas like Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS); and MARC data in an XML environment (MARCXML).
 Fluency in at least one language represented in the multilingual Partner collections, especially Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, or German.
 Familiarity with Excel to transform data, including using VBA Core macros.

The Center for Jewish History is committed to diversity and inclusion. Qualified individuals who bring diverse perspectives to the workplace are especially encouraged to apply.

Review of applications will begin immediately. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Send cover letter and resume to Eric Fritzler, Senior Manager for Metadata and Discovery, at eafritzler@cjh.org. No phone calls, please.