Digital Archives Specialist

Job Overview:

Austin PBS seeks a Digital Archives Specialist to help manage and preserve over 50 years of television production materials, including analog and born-digital audiovisual assets, photographic materials, technical and descriptive metadata, production and administrative records.

The Archive team is responsible for preserving and providing access to both contemporary and legacy assets in a broadcast production environment. Ongoing work includes the implementation of a media asset management system (CatDV), which will be used in all aspects of station operations from automated production and digital asset preservation workflows to metadata management.

What you will be doing:

Working with the Director of Archives, you will take a hands-on, user-centered approach to the strategic implementation, administration, and management of our media asset management system (CatDV) which will include audiovisual recordings, audio, photographs, scanned documents, the associated metadata and other digital content. Future projects are likely to include other legacy media digitization projects and planning for the preservation of unprocessed assets including photographic materials and paper production records.

Role & Responsibilities:

Media Asset Management

• Work closely with other Austin PBS staff across departments to document departmental workflows and streamline those workflows into CatDV and integrated systems
• Develop cataloging processes and other relevant workflows for ingesting, describing, managing, and preservation of digital assets
• Gather, organize, and normalize legacy data from multiple systems for import into CatDV
• Review and clean newly created user and staff created metadata 
• Research and verify data across multiple legacy and contemporary systems and sources
• Advise on metadata standards and supervise workflow development and implementation 
• Develop and document procedures for using CatDV and integrated systems
• Assist and train Austin PBS staff on metadata gathering and the use of CatDV
• Administer CatDV system, including user management and permissions
• Support fulfillment of assets to distribution partners (FAST channels, OTT apps, etc.) 
• Project management as agreed upon by the Director
• Delegate tasks and supervise other project staff in a non-management role

Preservation Projects

• Assist in the planning, design, and implementation of mass audiovisual, digitization and scanning projects
• Manage the quality control, ingest, and description of newly digitized audiovisual assets
• Maintain relationships with outside organizations for the long-term preservation of Austin PBS assets

Education and/or Experience:

• 2-3 year experience working with archiving, curating, or equivalent
• Direct experience working with CatDV or other MAMs or DAMs
  • Experience with EIDR registration and management a plus
• Advanced experience gathering and structuring metadata
• Some practical experience working with large sets of data and media
• Some practical understanding of the identification of video codecs and other digital formats
• Advanced applied experience working with spreadsheets (Google Sheets, Excel)
• Advanced knowledge of navigating Google Suite

Skills & Knowledge:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Ability to manage multiple projects, meet deadlines and change course as appropriate
• Ability to follow detailed verbal and written instructions to meet complex specifications
• Extreme attention to detail
• Experience working across teams and departments to understand institutional operations
• Strong interpersonal skills in order to communicate effectively with vendors and internal stakeholders.
• This job may include sitting for long hours doing repetitive tasks
• May be required to lift boxes of materials up 50lbs

Additional Experience (nice to have): 

• Professional background in library, archives, and/or museums
• Working with metadata in a digital repository setting
• Managing large media files and associated data
• Using spreadsheet formulas, programming, or scripting languages
• Ability to implement comprehensive training and coaching of internal stakeholders with CatDV 

This is a full time salaried position currently working onsite at the Austin Media Center. Starting salary is $70,000 + commensurate with experience.

Austin PBS, KLRU-TV is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, age, national origin or disability.