Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Job Opening at the Legacy Center

We have begun our search for a new archivist to replace the recently vacated Assistant Archivist position. This position is being re-titled "Archivist."

The position scope covers reference and outreach and the Archivist provides both public and technical support in the overall management of the archives. This is a full-time, year-round position reporting to the Center's Director, working closely with other senior staff and providing some supervision to student workers. The Legacy Center is located on the Queen Lane campus in East Falls.

The Legacy Center contains the records of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann Medical College, and their predecessor and successor institutions, including Drexel University College of Medicine. The Special Collections comprise materials documenting the history of women in medicine, women’s health and homeopathy. The Center is a core program of the College of Medicine’s Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Archivist is the key responder to reference requests and is charged
with establishing positive relationships with users and providing
productive research experiences:

  • works on-site and remotely with researchers to provide professional reference service;
  • oversees scanning and photocopying requests;
  • manage rights and reproductions for requested collection materials;
  • improves and maintains work flows.

The Archivist develops and maintains projects designed to broaden and
increase usership:
  • maintains the Archives blog;
  • utilizes electronic information and networking tools;
  • develops and maintains physical and electronic exhibits or oversees such projects;
  • supports history outreach efforts related to the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership;
  • represents the Center at local, regional and national meetings.

The Archivist contributes to physical and electronic collections
management:
  • accessions incoming materials;
  • retrieves new collection material;
  • works with team in decision-making regarding processing collections;
  • works with team in establishing electronic records protocols;
  • assists in supervision of student workers.

QUALIFICATIONS
Master's degree in Library and Information Science, History or Public
History or other appropriate degree, with an archives concentration
preferred. A minimum of two years archival experience is required.
Experience is necessary in conducting reference work in an archives or
library setting and in implementing archival description standards,
procedures and best practices.

Deft command of desktop computing skills and strong technical
orientation are necessary; demonstrated experience or familiarity with
various information systems and services including the application of
social networking tools in an archival setting is highly desirable. Experience blogging is also a welcomed asset.

The successful candidate will demonstrate initiative, excellent organizational skills, strong interpersonal and communication skills and be able to lift 40 lb. boxes.

SALARY: $40,000 - $44,000

TO APPLY
Please send letter of interest, resume and 3 references to Margaret Graham, mgraham@drexelmed.edu

This announcement can also be viewed at www.drexelmedjobs.com – click search postings – and choose 'Archivist' from Job Title drop down box.

Friday, June 4, 2010

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye

Dr. Emeline H. Cleveland - awaiting your research interest
It's true - we made it through each part of the move, including leaving the old building, getting into the new building, moving collections from two off-site facilities and remediating the worst of the Iron Mountain failures - but the economy is driving our team apart.

I'm off to new adventures of a non-archival nature; finances compel me to resume my previous IT career.  The archival profession as a whole should have an open discussion about why a career that requires at least one (and often more) advanced degrees and a high degree of technical skill typically pays so poorly; hopefully, at some point in the future, that will change.

While that will not happen soon enough for me, I can say unreservedly that I've had a blast in this profession, and especially here at Drexel - how many jobs combine detective work, fun with history, techie buzz and all-around camaraderie with an amazing team? 

And my work will stay with me - when last in Seattle, I noted places where Amy Kaukonen (WMC 1915) had lived and worked in that city, and I can answer just about any question you might pose about the evolution of women in medicine (or at least point you to someone who might know where else to look for details - why not start with The Chaff?).  When looking for pet names, my first impulse is now to honor an early woman doctor - it's no doubt a modern manifestaiton of Jeremy Bentham naming his cat The Reverend Sir John Langbourne, DD (perhaps this happens to other UCL alums as well?) - although I would maintain that Anna M. Longshore-Potts, MD, is much easier to remember.

It's also been interesting to see how many search results we get from middle schools, especially those looking for information on women doctors during the civil war, such as Mary Edwards Walker, and those looking for Rebecca Cole and Eliza Grier.  It's especially encouraging in light of the planning grant we recently received to develop more content (and context) for this age group - something I'll be keeping tabs on from afar.

I look forward to a future blog post when the Correspondenzblatt der Homoeopathischen Aerzte goes online - while I may be moving on, this blog will be in the extremely capable (if very busy) hands of other members of the department, so do continue to follow along.  Hopefully, there will be a new hire announcement in the near future (and I'll try not to leave anything too strange for that person in my soon-to-be-former office - we've got enough of that sort of thing in the stacks).

And here are a few other takeaways –
With that, I must say farewell - it's been a wonderful opportunity to share some of our work here with you, and I'll continue to keep an eye on future developments.  Watch for more to come!

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