Generic Job Description

Archives Assistant II

Grade D

Representative Duties:

• Coordinates the work in a unit. Serves as the primary source of information on established procedures and policies for staff and patrons. May perform a range of public and technical service functions.
• Oversees, instructs and coordinates activities of staff.
• Prepares, arranges, revises, photocopies, and distributes finding aids, guides, registers and other descriptive controls for manuscript collection.
• Prepares and edits textual descriptions and other explanatory material for the registers, guides, inventories or lists.
• Assists in establishing preliminary physical and bibliographic control of new accessions to a collection.
• Performs clerical functions incidental to library activities.
  

Family: Library
Job Code: 957    Date: 2/89

The job duties listed above are representative and characteristic of the duties required and the level of the work performed in the job title. The duties will vary from incumbent to incumbent in the job title.

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Yale University Clerical and Technical Job Description
Job: 957     Archives Assistant II     Grade D

Required Knowledge:

• Specialized college-level coursework; detailed but narrow knowledge in one or several work-related areas; substantial knowledge of broader field of learning.
  Limited acquaintance with business, accounting, or commercial procedures.
  Limited knowledge of University organizational policies and procedures generally; detailed knowledge of a narrow area of University rules and procedures.

Required Skills:

• Extracts and compiles a broad range of data from a variety of written sources, personal contacts and/or data bases selected independently; interpretation/limited analysis of data.
  Uses a variety of standard reference works and several library catalogs or reference databases.
  Classifies material for filing; use of straightforward or complex filing systems.
  Screens complex, technical or specialized literature for referral.
  Composes, proofreads, or edits formal general correspondence, memoranda, short reports, or grant applications for internal or external circulation.
  Regular, skilled use of more complex machines, including word processors or personal computers.

Office and Administrative Skills:

• Keyboards materials that regularly include medical or legal terminology or foreign languages.
  Merges, edits, and manipulates data on a personal computer to generate complex reports.
  Refers callers and visitors to the appropriate individual.

Experience, Education, and Formal Training:

• Six years of related work experience, four of them in the same job family at the next lower level, and a high school level education; or four years of related work experience and an Associate degree; or little or no work experience and a Bachelor degree in a related field; or an equivalent combination of experience and education.

Complexity and Organization:

• Wide variety of complicated job tasks requiring coordinating numerous processes/methods.

Interpersonal Relations:

• Ongoing involvement outside immediate unit.
  Offers or obtains specialized information and provides assistance on complex matters.
  Understands and evaluates what is being said and responds with complex answers that may take time to give.

Supervisory Guidelines:

• Work is subject to general review on an occasional basis.
  Supervisor and incumbent plan, assign and schedule work jointly.
  Instruction provided only in new situations, methods, procedures that are not clearly related to existing tasks and duties.

Independent Judgment:

• Established procedures/policies govern many work situations.
  Regular exercise of independent judgment or initiative.
  Problems solved by choosing solutions from among several alternatives that are not necessarily governed by established procedures.

Leadership Responsibility:

• Occasionally provides work guidance or orientation for non-routine procedures/policies.
  Sometimes distributes and monitors work.

Impact and Consequence of Error:

• Work affects both outside the work unit and outside the University.
  Errors are difficult to recognize and correct and can cause harm or financial loss to individuals, departments, and the University, or to other individuals and groups.

Working Conditions:

• Very little possibility of safety risks.
  Occasional conflicting demands, deadlines, emergencies, or time pressures.
  Regular sustained concentration.
  Some physical effort or dexterity.

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Example 1

Archive Assistant II (957)
Salary: D

General purpose:
With a high level of discretion and confidentiality, coordinate the archiving project activities in the Office. Serve as the primary source of information on established archiving procedures and policies for staff.

Essential duties:

1. Prepare, arrange, revise, photocopy, and distribute finding aids, guides, registers and other descriptive controls for archiving office files.
2. Extract and compile a broad range of data from a variety of written sources, personal contacts and/or data bases selected independently; interpretation/limited analysis of data. Classify material for filing; use of straightforward or complex filing system.
3. Prepare and edit textual descriptions and other explanatory material for the inventories or lists of the office files.
4. In conjunction with other’s, screen complex technical, or specialized documents for referral.
5. Identify which archived materials should be shredded, archived and entered onto File-Maker pro data base.
6. Assist in establishing preliminary physical control of newly archived records.
7. Perform clerical functions incidental to office activities.

Experience and training:
Six years of related work experience, four of them in the same job family at the next lower level, and a high school level education; or four years of related work experience and an Associate degree; or little or no work experience and a Bachelor degree in a related field; or an equivalent combination of experience and education.

Skills and abilities:

1. Must be willing to work in an environment that contains dust and/or mold and have the ability to lift up to 50 pounds.
2. Word processing and familiarity with File Maker Pro required
3. Required to sign a confidentiality statement.
4. Minimal keyboarding skills (25-39 wpm).

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Example 2

Archive Assistant II (957)
Salary: D

General purpose:
Prepare catalog records, logs and other finding aids for video testimonies and assist in the public service functions of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies (VAHT). Duties require work with psychologically intense material for extended periods.

Essential duties of position:

1. View testimonies. Take notes on contents or review notes taken by others for accuracy and completeness. Take notes at taping sessions.
2. Compile data elements required for RLIN AMC records, following practices established in previously cataloged testimonies. Summarize each testimony according to a prescribed pattern in a scope note for the RLIN AMC record. Assign local and Library of Congress subject headings from the preferred headings in use by the department.
3. Consult gazetteers and other standardized sources for established place names.
4. Revise records as needed.
5. May assist in-person patrons in the registration process to use the VAHT.
6. May assist patrons in the use of VAHT finding aids.

Experience and training:

1. Six years of related work experience, four of them in the same job family at the next lower level, and a high school level education; or four years of related work experience and an Associate degree; or little or no work experience and a Bachelors degree in a related field; or an equivalent combination of experience and education.
2. Preferred: Abstracting and indexing experience. Experience in word processing, particularly with WordPerfect.

Skills and abilities

1. Knowledge of Holocaust studies.
2. Strong written and oral communication skills.
3. Ability to balance conflicting demands and set priorities.
4. Ability to work cooperatively in a group setting.
5. References must indicate reliable attendance and punctuality, accuracy and attention to detail, diligent performance and the ability to master complex procedures.
6. Preferred: Knowledge of RLIN/AMC and the U.S. MARC formats. Working knowledge of Yiddish, German, Hebrew, French, or European languages.

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