Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the collection, preservation, and interpretation of materials focused on African American, African, and African Diasporan experiences, featuring diverse programming and exhibition of over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global black history and culture. A research library of The New York Public Library and seeded by the collection of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg 95 years ago, the Schomburg Center provides free access to materials documenting Black life locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture seeks an experienced and driven digital curator who will be dedicated to developing, implementing, and coordinating processes around the Schomburg Center’s rich digital holdings and lay the foundation of the Center’s grant funded digital curation initiative. The digital curator will create and execute strategies to enhance the Schomburg Center’s capability in digital curation across our divisions, with particular focus in our visual research divisions, within The New York Public Library, and similar institutions with African and African American archives. The digital curator will address the Center’s need to make all collections visible, searchable, and accessible, in keeping with our mission to make evident the experiences and impact of people of African descent.

This position is temporary with support from a two year grant from The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

Key Responsibilities ------
Reporting to the director of the Schomburg Center, and serving as a critical member of a talented team of curators, the core responsibilities of the digital curator will be to:
- Assess visual research collections for internal preservation and external access
- Devise and implement a cataloguing and digitization strategy for the visual arts collections
- Work principally with Schomburg’s Art and Artifacts and Photographs and Prints divisions
- Collaborate with all division curators to assess and identify collections for digitization
- Coordinate the processing and preservation of records in both digital and analog form
- Create processes that could later be applied to other divisions
- Utilize digital platforms and displays to make collections visible to new and existing audiences
- Provide strategic vision for developing a Schomburg Center digital division
- Supervise and mentor one part-time research associate
- Remain current with emerging standards and professional best practices
- Contribute to Schomburg digital exhibitions, events, programs and projects
- Work across our research divisions and NYPL research libraries
- Work with various stakeholders, including curators, archivists, librarians, and NYPL teams

Required Education & Experience
- Master’s degree in library science or a related field
- A minimum of three years experience in a research or academic library, or related digital humanities environment

Required Skills
- Effective leadership skills and professionalism
- Ability to manage complex projects
- Knowledge of cataloging and digitization standards
- Excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to interact in a diverse community
- Knowledge or deep interest in History and/or African American Studies

Preferred Qualifications
- The successful candidate will be curious, committed, and collaborative, and able to provide strategic vision for the Schomburg Center digital initiative and future digital projects