Job Opening: Community Engagement Archivist

Rungh is seeking applicants for a contract position of Community Engagement Archivist. Application Deadline: Monday, May 15, 5pm PST. Apply by email to info@rungh.org.

Job Title: Community Engagement Archivist, Rungh Cultural Society

Location: Rungh Cultural Society, Vancouver, BC.

Contract Length: 12 Months from start date, term, limited.

Compensation: 12-month contract, $50/hour, 50 hours a month; $30,000 (Annually)

Rungh is a Canadian multidisciplinary space for creative explorations, featuring work by Indigenous, Black and People of Colour artists. Comprising of a magazine, programming, archive, advocacy and more, Rungh is committed to Canada-wide conversations by and about people of colour. Rungh questions and challenges ideas about diversity in the Canadian cultural landscape.

Since its relaunch in 2017, the Rungh Cultural Society has worked to develop its community arts archive. Comprising primarily of event documentation, activism, and publications from the Rungh Cultural Society during the 1990's, Rungh has worked to activate its collection through events and the development of a publicly accessible digital archive. Most recently, Rungh has launched Rungh Redux, an award-winning finding tool for exploring its print archive collection.

The Community Engagement Archivist leads the description, arrangement, and preservation of Rungh's digitized records. This position develops relationships with Rungh's audience to promote engagement with, and spur creation from, Rungh's archival collection. Community members include community organizers, activist groups, arts organizations, academics, artists, writers, and neighbours. The Community Engagement Archivist will also engage in the processing and preservation of items for a future physical archive.

This is a hybrid role based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which requires physical presence to process archival materials and deliver public events.

COVID-19 Notice: Employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof of vaccination. Employees who cannot be fully vaccinated on the basis of a protected legal ground (e.g., medical, religious) may request an exemption. Please note that this policy applies to all employees, including new hires, and volunteers. If your application is successful, you will be asked to provide proof of vaccination or request an exemption.

• Plan, coordinate, and execute public events to promote engagement with Rungh's Archival collection in partnership with external stakeholders and neighbours.
• In the spirit of activating the archive, foster partnerships with communities, academics, and artists with the goal of co-creating curriculum-integrated programming, community events, scholarship, and/or future artistic work.
• Maintain sensitive relationships with community members, including community organizers, activist groups, non-profits, arts organizations, academics, artists, writers, and neighbours.
• Describe, refine, and catalogue current digital collection, including metadata generation.
• Evaluate metadata and access points for accurate and culturally sensitive description of all materials.
• Collaborate with the Rungh Redux team on future digital archival development.
• Perform maintenance tasks for digital and physical preservation.
• Apply the proper methodology to process and preserve archival material in various formats, according to archival standards and internal procedures.

• Master's degree in Library or Information Science from an ALA accredited university, with coursework in digital archives.

Required:

• A minimum of 2 years experience with digital records or digitization project management in a community archives environment. (Archival collections relating to IBPOC history preferred.)
• Strong experience planning, executing, and leading strategic community engagement GG processes.
• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining strategic relationships with stakeholders to develop mutually beneficial partnerships.
• Experience planning and executing public events, including experience with implementing appropriate AV for recording.
• Experience working with archival material, especially born-digital and digitized documents in both current and non-current digital formats.
• Demonstrated commitment to incorporating equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into all aspects of professional practice.
• Experience describing, preserving, and providing access to born-digital and digitized records.
• Knowledge of the application of information technology, including digitization, social media, and website maintenance within an archival environment.
• Experience and knowledge of generally accepted standards of practice for archives such as Rules for Archival Description (RAD), conservation, access, and other archival procedures.
• Knowledge of applicable legislation including PIPEDA and Canadian Copyright law.
• Strong skills in interpersonal relations, teamwork, analysis, time management, organization and written and verbal communication.
• Strong self-starter, with a demonstrated track record of working effectively in a remote work environment.

Preferred:

• Previous experience working in digital-first community archives, and/or arts organizations.
• Previous experience activating archival collections to encourage academic, public, or artistic engagement.
• Other formal education in related fields such as critical theory, South Asian studies, etc.
• Strong interest in and demonstrated broad knowledge of IBPOC history within Canada.