NYS Education Department's Office of Cultural Education seeks an Archives Conservation Specalist 1 (deadline 5 November)

I usually don't post non-electronic records jobs, but this one's kind of special: the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education oversees the State Archives, the State Library, the State Museum, and the State Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting.

If you're an experienced paper conservator who likes working with amazing collections and cool colleagues and who lives or would like to live in the historic Hudson Valley, the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education would to hear from you:

The State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education (OCE) is seeking to fill an Archives Conservation Specialist (ACS) 1 position.  Under the direction of an ACS 3, the incumbent will perform conservation/preservation activities for paper-based collections in the Office of Cultural Education.   Collections encompass, but are not limited to, archival holdings, manuscripts, prints, drawings, and maps.  Abiding by the American Institute for Conservation Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice, duties will include, but not be limited to, the following: 

• Examine, treat, document, and house high priority paper based collections and prepare the collections for exhibition;
• Participate in collections stewardship activities and teams,  including: environmental monitoring programs, including operation of dataloggers, reporting of data, and collaboration with facilities managers and building engineers to improve conditions; emergency planning and response, including staff training, maintenance of supplies, protection of collections from hazards, immediate response to disasters, and evaluation and treatment of damaged collections; stacks and storage maintenance and housekeeping; preservation assessment of collections and recommending preventive and remedial preservation action and maintaining documentation of preservation needs and actions; planning and supervising rehousing and processing activities for selected paper based   collections; preparation of selected paper based collections for reformatting initiatives;
• Deliver presentations and demonstrations illustrating conservation principles, techniques and results;
• Provide preservation and conservation advice to government customers and the public;
• Provide advice, assistance, and training to staff as needed and participate in disaster response outreach activities;
• Participate in OCE lab management activities, including maintaining inventory of supplies, and maintenance and use of OCE equipment; an
• Supervise Historic Conservation Technician, interns, and support staff, as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: For provisional appointment, candidates must have a Master’s degree in paper conservation, OR a Bachelor’s degree and two years of experience as a conservation technician with duties including one or more of the following: assisting conservator with conservation lab treatments, such as washing, lining and deacidification; independently carrying out conservation lab treatments, such as dry cleaning, mending, or fabrication of custom storage containers; monitoring and recording environmental conditions; overseeing technical components of micrographics or imaging operations; or assisting conservator with preservation training activities.

The starting salary for this position is $41,170 (in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement, this figure is not negotiable). Within approximately seven years, annual performance increases will bring the successful candidate's salary up to a maximum of $52,552. The State of New York offers a comprehensive package of benefits.

As noted above, the deadline for applying for this position is 5 November 2013. For more information and detailed application instructions, consult the position description.

Catching up: Haiti, metadata, New York State Archives

Sorry for the light posting as of late. On 13 October, I confidently predicted that a flurry of posts would be forthcoming. Well, it didn't happen. That 13 October post went live during a long layover at CLT, and during the flight from CLT to ALB I started feeling . . . bad. I had come down with a cold several days earlier, but it seemed to be a peaceable, mild sort of virus, and I figured it would go away after a couple of days. However, the cold kicked into high gear during the flight to ALB, and it stayed that way for more than a week. Now that I've recovered, you should see some more activity around here.

Here are a few things that may interest you:

• People before records: as you probably know, there is an outbreak of cholera in Haiti, which is still reeling from the devastation caused by the 12 January 2010 earthquake. At the time of this writing, over 200 people have died and over 2,600 people have been sickened. Health workers on the ground are increasingly afraid that the disease, which can result in rapid, agonizing death, will spread to the capital of Port au Prince; if it does, an already horrific situation will become truly calamitous. Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health have seasoned personnel on the ground in Haiti, and on the right-hand side of this page you'll find links that make it easy for you to donate to these organizations. Please consider giving whatever you can to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, or other reputable groups working to help Haiti recover from the earthquake and its aftermath.

• Earlier this month, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the metadata associated with e-mail is a public record subject to disclosure under the state's Public Records Act. The majority opinion also contains some other interesting tidbits. First, the plaintiff's initial request, which centered upon the message itself, did not, in and of itself, constitute a request for the accompanying metadata; however, the opinion notes that the case at hand marks the first time that the issue of metadata has arisen in litigation relating to the state's public records law. Second, the local government being sued has the right and the obligation to inspect the hard drive of the home computer of the official who received the message at the center of the request. This official opened the message while at home, printed a copy, and then deleted the message from the local government's e-mail system. Finally, the court cited as precedent a recent decision (Irwin v. Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency) handed down by the 4th Department of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court -- which, despite its name, is not New York State's high court. (Thanks to my colleague Linda for this tip!)

• As of 16 October, the New York State Archives and the New York State Library are open Monday-Saturday. I helped to staff our reference desk today and had a surprisingly good time -- we got some great researchers, and having a workday devoid of meetings and urgent e-mails was a really pleasant change of pace. Please visit the State Archives or State Library on Saturdays -- lots of eager reference personnel will be waiting to help you! And be sure to check out the superb New York State Museum, which is located in the same building.