The Special Collections Curatorial Specialist oversees the stewardship of the Special Collections at the Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries including the handling of all items, and developing, maintaining, advising and enforcing internal policies, procedures and standards relating to the preservation and conservation requirements.
Maintains and expands the descriptive records in the collections databases.
Provides digitization and digital asset management assistance to fulfill research requests and improves access to archival, book, and audiovisual collections material.
Responsibilities:
- Oversee the stewardship of the Special Collections, including unique and special items and the proper archival storage and re-housing of materials, ensuring the safekeeping, conservation and/or preservation of these materials by keeping abreast of new methods being developed in the field.
- Maintains internal policies, procedures and standards relating to the preservation and conservation of the collection.
- Provides reference services to library users, such as faculty, researchers and students and recommends appropriate resources or alternatives as they relate to special collections.
- Provide services related to Collections, such as monitoring the email account, schedule appointments for collections access, oversee digitization requests
Qualifications
To help us learn more about you, please provide a cover letter and resume describing how you meet the following required qualifications:
- Successful completion of a Master’s degree in Museum, Photographic Preservation or Curatorship, Archival, Special Collections or related areas of study.
- A minimum of 2 (two) years’ experience in a similar role, including experience arranging and describing collections using the RAD, ISAD (G), or other accepted heritage collections descriptive standard with the following requirements:
- Experience providing research assistance
- Knowledge of RAD
- Knowledge of preservation methods and proper handling of photographic and other specialized materials
- Knowledge of digitizing a wide variety of archival or collections materials, including graphic materials, text, objects and audio visual
- Knowledge of digital preservation best practices
- Knowledge of AtoM and MARC a definite asset
- An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
- Demonstrated ability of organizing online or physical exhibitions.
- Solid analytical skills in determining the discipline to which materials belong and the interpretation of international descriptive standards.
- Proven record in organizing public events and exhibitions, including developing displays, both physical and virtual and maintaining web pages.
- Experience working with computer software and text editing tools
- Strong time management and organization skills are required to effectively prioritize and handle multiple tasks simultaneously
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including making presentations on special collections and delivering presentations
- Demonstrated commitment to client service in providing reference services to library users – specifically students, faculty, staff and external contacts
