Archives Technician

Summary The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), NMAI's Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, MD.

More than one selection may be made from this announcement. Duties The Archives Technician is responsible for assisting with the arrangement, description, preservation, cataloging and access to NMAI's moderately large archival collections.

In this position, you will:

• Assist the Head Archivist and Archive Center staff in the physical collections management of a wide range of archival materials including but not limited to papers, photographs, film, video, and sound recordings.
• Be responsible for tracking, rehousing and storing of archival collections; monitoring temperature, relative humidity and storage condition; conducting archival collection inventories, surveys, reorganizing and refiling collections materials among other duties related to the care, preservation and management of archival collections.
• Process new and legacy archival collections, apply basic preservation methods including removing damaging residue or attachments; rehousing documents in acid free folders and containers; and identifying and maintaining a running list of fragile materials that require preservation treatment and digitization.
• Describe archival materials for both new acquisitions and unprocessed legacy collections. The description includes well-written and concise finding aids and collection level records entered in Archivists’ Toolkit system in accordance with archival descriptive standards including DACS.

• Prepare small purchase orders to secure supplies and services from outside vendors.

• Work on administrative and program support tasks including arranging travel for staff and contracted consultants, including scheduling transportation, making hotel reservations, supporting staff en route and preparing travel authorizations and vouchers.
• Assist the Reference Archivist in providing reference and research services both onsite and remotely, to the public, Native American communities and constituents, researchers, and Smithsonian staff. Assists on-site researchers in the Archive Center reading room by identifying appropriate collections, pulling items, assisting in their use, and refiling them.
• Answers staff and public inquiries by performing necessary research about archival holdings and responding in a detailed manner via email, phone or letter.

Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-06 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized experience is defined working on archival arrangement, preservation, and description of manuscript, photo, and audiovisual (AV) collections; using archive management systems (Archivists’ Toolkit, ArchivesSpace, Archon, etc.), providing reference service to archival researchers, and executing basic administrative tasks (i.e., arranging travel for staff and preparing small purchase orders). Must have experience working with AV collections including identifying formats, inspecting, cleaning, splicing, rehousing, and describing audiovisual collections.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

Or Education: 1 Full year of graduate level education or Superior Academic Achievements

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications. For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards. Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the "Required Documents" section of this announcement. Education See above under qualifications..

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

Qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions on OPM website. How you will be evaluated Applicants for this position may be evaluated in multiple stages. The first stage is an evaluation of your responses to the online multiple-choice questions that assess your experience, education, and/or training for the job-related competencies below:

• Knowledge of methods of archival storage and preservation for paper, photographic, media, and digital materials.
• Knowledge of basic archival principles, methods, and techniques, automated information systems, and their applications to routine archival situations.
• Ability to use electronic archival and museum collection information management systems for describing, organizing, and managing archival holdings.
• Knowledge of purchasing procedures, rules, and regulations.
• Knowledge of Federal travel procedures, rules and regulations.
• Ability to perform onsite and remote reference service with a wide variety of archival researchers, including museum professionals, scholars, tribal representatives, artists, non-traditional researchers, and the general public.

BASIS OF RATING: Once the announcement closes, your application will be automatically evaluated and rated by the system and a Human Resources Specialist. To determine if you are qualified for this job, a review of your application and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the occupational questionnaire. The numeric rating you receive is based on your responses to the questionnaire. The score is a measure of the degree to which your background matches the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of this position. If, after the Human Resources Specialist reviews your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that the score you have received is not a true reflection of your qualifications and/or experience, your score can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect the information you provided that support your abilities. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Your resume should provide detailed information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.

Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA): If you are applying for a VEOA appointment, you must be a veteran and must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed 3 or more years of active service. ("Active Service" under this law means active duty in a uniformed service and includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, full-time National Guard duty, and attendance, while in the active service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary concerned.) A veteran who is released under honorable conditions shortly before completing a 3-year tour is also eligible.

Noncompetitive Appointment Authorities: The following links contain information on the eligibility requirements to be considered under a noncompetitive appointing authority:

• Primary Appointing Authorities for Career and Career-Conditional Appointments
• Hiring Authorities for Veterans
• People with Disabilities

You may preview questions for this vacancy.

Benefits

The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options.

Please see Benefits at https://www.si.edu/OHR/benefits for a complete description.

Flexible Spending Accounts - https://www.fsafeds.com/ Health Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/health/index.asp Leave - http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/index.asp Life Insurance - http://www.opm.gov/insure/life/index.asp Long Term Care Insurance - http://www.ltcfeds.com Retirement Program - https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/ How to apply Click on the "Apply Online" button on the upper right side of the page. Please Note:

• You must apply for this position online through the 'Apply Online' button and submit required supplemental documents (if they are relevant to you).
• You may submit required documents by uploading them online during the application process.
• The complete application package, including any required documents, is due in the Smithsonian Office of Human Resources on the closing date of the announcement by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
• If you are unable to apply online, paper applications may be accepted with prior approval of the Contact Person listed below.

Other information

• This position is included in the bargaining unit.

Current or Former Political Appointees: Beginning January 1, 2010, agencies must seek prior approval from OPM before they can appoint a current or recent political appointee to a competitive or non-political excepted service position at any level under the provisions of title 5, United States Code. If you are currently or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, or Non-career SES employee in the executive branch, you MUST disclose that to the Office of Human Resources. Submit a copy of your applicable SF-50, along with a statement that provides the following information regarding your most recent political appointment:

• Position title;
• Type of appointment (Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES, or Presidential Appointee);
• Agency; and,
• Beginning and ending dates of appointment.

Recruitment Incentive: Recruitment incentive(s) may be authorized for this position. However, approval for incentives are contingent upon various availability. If authorized, certain incentives will require the incumbent to sign a service agreement to remain in the Federal government for a certain time period.

Note: This statement does not imply nor guarantee an incentive will be offered and paid.

Selections may be made for vacancies across the Smithsonian Institution (SI). By applying to this position, you agree to allow your application and other personal information to be shared with one or more SI hiring officials for employment consideration for same/similar positions within the location(s) identified in this announcement.