Job: Director of Barnard Archives and Special Collections

Position Summary
The Director of Barnard Archives and Special Collections (BASC) provides visionary leadership for the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, advancing its role as a center for feminist archival practice, historical research, and digital preservation.

About the Barnard Archives & Special Collections
The Archives also provides access to researchers across the college and around the world, through in-person research appointments and class drop-in sessions; remote reference over email; and our digital collections of highly used materials. The Archives manages digital collections through Archipelago, Barnard’s digital repository platform designed for open, flexible presentation and metadata-rich access. In collaboration with the Barnard Academic Technologies and Learning Innovation Services (ATLIS) team, the Archives is in the process of implementing a sustainable digital preservation pipeline. This workflow will ensure the long-term management, authenticity, and accessibility of born-digital and digitized materials, aligned with best practices in preservation, metadata standards, and feminist digital stewardship. Finally, the Archives engages broad audiences through exhibition, programming, and online outreach, all of which is additionally embedded in the teaching and functioning of the college, and prioritize the students, faculty, and staff of the College in all of our work.

Job Description:

About the Director of the Barnard Archives & Special Collections
The Director ensures the long-term stewardship, accessibility, and ethical care of materials documenting Barnard College and broader histories of feminist activism, art, and scholarship. This position is responsible for managing or coordinating management of the day to day operations of the archives, which includes a portfolio of hiring, training, and supervising of professional and student staff, preparing reports, support for reference and consultation, teaching, faculty support, donor development, and administering an annual budget for acquisitions, special projects, preservation, and supplies. 

The Director plans, organizes, and oversees all aspects of the College’s Archives and Special Collections. As part of the Barnard Library Management Team, this position will collaborate across library departments to leverage our various resources for projects and services, and to assess and create development opportunities for all staff. The Director will also work collaboratively across Barnard and the Columbia University Libraries partnership to expand access to collections, develop inclusive and reparative archival practices, and lead digital preservation initiatives that sustain the historical record.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Administration

• Provides leadership, vision, and management for the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, developing policies, setting long-term goals, ensuring alignment with the mission and strategic priorities of Barnard College
• Responsible for overseeing the operations of the Archives, including the hiring, training, and supervising professional staff (1-FTE), graduate assistants  (2), and student workers (4+), fostering a collaborative and inclusive work culture.
• Manages development, strategic planning, and grant-seeking initiatives that strengthen the Archives’ resources and visibility.
• Develops and communicates policies and procedures for the use of materials housed in the Archives.

Collection Development and Stewardship

• Leads efforts to appraise, acquire, process, document, and preserve Barnard’s institutional history and special collections materials in the areas of feminist history in all formats, including born-digital and hybrid collections, with adherence to standards and technical best practices shaping the future of the collection.
• Develops and maintains sustainable digital preservation workflows, policies, and infrastructure in collaboration with vendors, Barnard Information Technology (BCIT) ATLIS staff.
• Manages archives software and systems, including locally-hosted servers, and cloud-hosted/vendor-supported digital collections.
• Management of physical plant; monitoring humidity and temperature, working with Capital Projects on improvements to space.

Access, Research, and Pedagogy

• Directs, plans, prepares, and promotes exhibitions, loans, and public programming of archival materials, in collaboration with faculty, librarians, and other campus partners.
• Collaborates with faculty across disciplines to integrate primary source literacy and feminist archival theory into the curriculum.
• Manages and conducts archival and primary source reference, consultation, and instructional services to faculty, students, and administrators, as well as outside researchers. 
• Actively engages with Personal Librarians, Milstein Centers, faculty and students as partners in integrating archival research and methods into the curriculum, exhibition, programmatic work. 

Outreach, Collaboration, and Partnership

• Builds partnerships with feminist, activist, and community archives to advance collective documentation and preservation goals, regionally and nationally.
• Serves as the primary liaison to Columbia University Libraries’ archival and special collections community and coordinates with Columbia staff on the discovery of Barnard archival collections in Columbia systems such as FOLIO and ArcLight.
• Engages alumnae, donors, and the public in supporting and sustaining Barnard’s archival mission.
• Work closely with the Dean of the Library, senior management team, General Counsel, and the Office of Development/Alumnae Relations (DevAR), to create fundraising strategies, cultivate donors, and write proposals to support the goals and activities of the Archives and Special Collections.

 

Skills, Qualifications & Requirements:

Qualifications

Required:

• Master’s degree in library and information science (ALA-accredited), archival studies, or a closely related field.
• Minimum 5-7 years of progressively responsible experience in archives or special collections, including supervisory experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in archival theory and practice, including digital preservation and management of born-digital materials.
• Basic understanding of command line interface, programmatic problem-solving, and adapting open-source tools to process, describe, and make archival materials accessible.
• Experience providing reference and instructional services in archives.
• Proven record of work in feminist, activist, or community-based archives or collections.
• Strong leadership, collaboration, and communication skills.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and ethical stewardship in archival practice.

Preferred:

• Knowledge of metadata and descriptive standards (e.g. DACS, EAD, MODS, Dublin Core) and digital preservation systems (e.g. Preservica, Archivematica). Knowledge of EAD, MODS or other metadata standards, ArchivesSpace or other archival management software, Archipelago or other digital asset management systems. 
• Experience managing reference and/or instructional services in an archives.
• Experience processing archival collections, including born digital archival materials.
• Knowledge of Folio or other ILS, MARC description
• Interest and participation in relevant professional organizations.
• Successful track record in grant writing and project management.
• Familiarity with metadata workflows and digital humanities tools that support discovery and access.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary range: $120,000–$125,000 annually, commensurate with experience.

Barnard College offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, vision, dental, and retirement plans; generous paid time off; and tuition benefits.

Preferred Application Deadline

For best consideration, please submit your application by January 5, 2026.

About Barnard College

Founded in 1889, Barnard College is a distinguished liberal arts college for women, affiliated with Columbia University and located in the heart of New York City. The Barnard Archives and Special Collections document the College’s history and its community’s deep engagements with feminism, social justice, and the arts—ensuring that the histories of women are preserved, accessible, and activated for generations to come.

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the College’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. 

Company:

Barnard College

Time Type:

Full time