About Curationist

Curationist is a free online resource that enables users and communities to seek, find, and reimagine cultural heritage through our vast archives of open access images, radical work with metadata, and editorial features shining light on marginalized histories of art and objects. For select items, the Curationist team enhances the metadata, adding more information or providing a different perspective, which is often rooted in a concern for social justice.

Job Overview

The core building blocks of the cultural data on our site are the Works, or digital objects. The Digital Archivist will create and refine metadata through a social justice lens for our Works, ensuring accuracy and alignment with Curationist’s editorial and style standards. Curationist’s Digital Archivists can also propose new metadata enrichment projects according to their own interests and experience. This role also involves fact-checking and research in support of our editorial content team. As an integral part of our distributed workplace, the Digital Archivist will report to the Managing Editor and collaborate with the Metadata Manager and Senior Digital Archivist.
Examples of projects/works we have enhanced with additional metadata :

• The Learned Courtesan in Edo Japan
• Industrial Optics: How We See Labor and Why It Matters More on how we work:
• Words Matter: Reconciling Museum Metadata with Wikidata

Responsibilities

• Metadata creation: Create new metadata for Works, including detailed object descriptions and alt text.
• Wikidata and Taxonomy Management Research and Fact-Checking Support for Writers: Conduct searches in Wikidata for relevant terms, add synonyms, or create new entries; oversee the management and growth of Curationist’s custom taxonomy.
• Research and Fact-Checking:: Research Works and verify source metadata accuracy; review and edit any metadata created by writers to ensure consistency and completeness.
• Support for Writers: Provide research and archival support, fielding questions and conducting rights research with external institutions as needed.
• Collaboration and Communication: Maintain consistent communication through email, Slack, and Asana, and participate in regular meetings.
• Outreach and Education: Participate in the Metadata Learning and Unlearning Summit.

Qualifications

• Education and Experience: Degree or equivalent experience in Archives and/or Library Science, with a strong background in art or cultural heritage.
• Technical Skills: Experience with metadata standards in cultural heritage, familiarity with Creative Commons and linked open data (Wikidata knowledge preferred).
• Cataloging, Writing & Research: Experience with cataloging for cultural heritage and/or museums; strong writing, proofreading, and research skills.
• Additional Expertise: Proficiency in remote project tools (Slack, Asana, Notion, Google Workspace), knowledge of controlled vocabularies, and interest and understanding of critical/postcolonial museum studies.

Preferred Attributes

• Self-motivated and able to direct one’s own research and project work.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively in a distributed workplace.
• Additional experience in accessibility writing, online content creation, and non-profit work.
• Familiarity with SPARQL, SQL, JSON, or similar data tools and formats.

To Apply

Please send us a cover letter and resume, including any relevant links or PDFs of your work and writing samples. Please collect all materials into one PDF and name the PDF with your "Firstname Lastname Digital Archivist Position" and email to: pitch.us@curationist.org

In your letter, please include mention of any research interests that overlap with Curationist’s archives, past experience working with art objects and cultural heritage, and your availability to work up to 50 hours per month.