Digital Preservation Coordinator

General Notes

The University of Texas Libraries welcomes and respects all individuals and communities by valuing and consciously maintaining awareness of diverse perspectives and experiences. We believe inclusivity is critical to fostering excellence in all of our endeavors, and we promote diversity in our collections and services, as well as in our recruiting, hiring, and retention practices.

Purpose

The UT Libraries seek a collaborative, detail-oriented, highly motivated individual to manage our LTO archive, which contains over a decade’s worth of valuable digital collections material and is always growing. The ideal candidate will bring strong technical skills to operate independently in Linux command line environments; an understanding of data integrity, its importance, and the skills and practices that maintain it; and a desire to lead improvements to our digital preservation infrastructure and workflows.

This position provides technical expertise and performs operations supporting digital preservation workflows, including LTO (Linear Tape-Open) tape archive administration and distributed storage management; disk/server space administration; digital forensics software/hardware configuration and management; and support for processing of born-digital archival collections.

Responsibilities

• Perform LTO tape archive operations, including: server building and maintenance; write preservation data to tape; manifest searching and data restoration; migrate older generations of tape; and manage off-site tape storage vendor relationship

• Advance and support digital preservation practices at UT Libraries, including: provide technical expertise and training to UT Libraries staff to improve digital preservation workflows; develop and implement scripts/commands (Linux, Python, bash, Perl, etc.) to improve processes; investigate new storage technologies; and implement redundant/distributed digital preservation storage.

• Advance and support processing and long-term stewardship of born-digital archival collections, including: collaborate with various stakeholders to develop guidelines and training resources for management of born-digital archival collections; provide support processing born-digital archival collections; and provide technical support for digital forensics equipment and software used in digital archives workflows.

• Manage and contribute to documentation within the unit; including: maintaining records of LTO tape archive operations and documenting preservation processes.

• Liaise with UT Libraries DevOps to manage unit’s working disk space.

Required Qualifications

• Systems administration training and experience, or equivalent experience, such as:
  • Broad knowledge of server, database, and storage infrastructures both on-premise and in the cloud, and ability to perform hands-on administration/engineering.
  • Strong scripting/command line skills (Linux, Python, bash, Perl, etc.)
  • Familiarity with information security and IT service management concepts and processes.
• Demonstrated problem-solving and sleuthing abilities.
• Understanding of LTO archives.
• Meticulous organizational and recordkeeping skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Evidence of high level of initiative and self-motivation.
• Strong commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility; awareness of professional discourse about DEI and representation in digital preservation and archiving practices.

Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Library or Information Studies (or equivalent); or a Master's degree in Archival Studies (or equivalent).
• Experience working in a technical role in an academic or research library, archive, or other institution in the cultural heritage sector.
• Knowledge of digital curation and preservation techniques, technologies, and standards, including sustainable file formats, preservation packaging formats such as BagIt, and preservation metadata.
• Ability to research and make recommendations about emerging and industry-standard data storage products, tools, and practices.
• Experience administering AWS cloud storage.
• Experience administering or using Archivematica or other digital preservation systems.
• Knowledge of techniques and technologies for recovering data from a wide variety of physical media, including floppy disks, hard drives, and other media of various ages and conditions.

Research indicates that applicants with marginalized identities are hesitant to apply for positions if they do not meet all of the qualifications. We want to emphasize that the preferred qualifications are not required and that we are committed to helping our future colleague develop these preferred skills.

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