Job Summary
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is a regional Alaska Native non-profit organization founded in 1980 by Sealaska Corporation. SHI’s mission is to perpetuate and enhance the culture of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples. SHI collects and preserves materials that document the history, culture, heritage, and language of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska and other Alaska Natives, and makes these materials available to the public for educational and research purposes. Our goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding.
SHI’s Archives and Collections constitute 3,100 linear feet of archival and historical manuscripts and papers, photographs, and audio and visual recordings, and a library of 2,500 books (historical and contemporary). The archives include historical documents, manuscripts, and papers of individuals of importance to both the indigenous people of the region and in Alaska history, as well as over 60,000 digital and historic photographs. SHI currently houses more than 5,000 historical and contemporary audio and audiovisual recordings documenting the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian language, culture, and history. The Archivist’s primary role is to steward the acquisition, documentation, conservation and use of the archives and collections, facilitating access for educational, research, exhibit, and scholarly uses.
Duties/Responsibilities
Archival Collections Management
Responsible for managing the SHI archival collections (manuscripts, photographs, and audio and video recordings) and making these records available and retrievable for public research. Including conducting extensive in-person and remote reference services, working with visiting scholars, hosting information sessions, managing permissions requests, and engaging the public with outreach events, social media posts, instructional videos, Archival Resource Guides, and other educational projects. Support the research needs of the Arts Campus.
Assist with archival research needs of SHI staff for various grant and other institutional projects. Including conducting surveys of archival materials, making hi-resolution reproductions, as well as archiving resulting grant project deliverables.
Manage and track reference statistics, permissions requests (internal and external), loan and accession files, grant deliverables, digital storage, and archival requests from outside institutions.
Review and update existing policies and procedures. Create new policies and procedures such as the emergency preparedness policy and digital collections management policy.
Applies technical knowledge of the principles and practices of archival arrangement, description, and preservation of multi-format collections including both print and digital resources as well as the preparation and publishing of finding aids and guides using archival and museum content management systems. Including addressing a significant backlog of unprocessed archival collections.
Survey the collection and prioritizes collections for preservation treatment, reformatting, rehousing, and other improvements.
Develop and manage digital archival preservation projects and metadata documentation of indigenous language recordings working with Native speakers.
Develop and manage grants for the physical and digital preservation of collections and other specialized areas to support the work of the SHI Archives and Library.
Conduct archival research for information sessions, scholarly publications, educational materials, and SHI projects and classes.
Represent SHI at professional summits, conferences, and workshops.
Library Management
Manage a small research library of scholarly publications and rare books, makes recommendations for new acquisitions, and maintains electronic catalog records for the archival and book collections in OCLC WorldCat (including MARC records), Workflows (SirsiDynix), and the state library catalog.
Conduct library outreach events to…