The National Museum of African American History and Culture's primary purposes are to acquire, maintain and preserve objects which document social, cultural, political, military, technological and scientific developments in the United States related to the African American experience; to conduct research in the field of African American history, to publish findings for all audiences; and interpret historical developments through public exhibits and programs as well as digital content.
Summary
The National Museum of African American History and Culture's primary purposes are to acquire, maintain and preserve objects which document social, cultural, political, military, technological and scientific developments in the United States related to the African American experience; to conduct research in the field of African American history, to publish findings for all audiences; and interpret historical developments through public exhibits and programs as well as digital content.
This position is open to current and former Federal employees with permanent status or reinstatement eligibility. Individuals who are eligible for a special appointing authority may also apply; such as applicants with a disability, former Peace Corps volunteers, certain military spouses, veterans seeking a VRA/VEOA appointment, or veterans who have been separated from armed forces under honorable conditions after 3 years or more of continuous active service.
The incumbent reports to the Head of Cataloging and Digitization, Office of Curatorial Affairs, National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and is responsible for coordinating the rights and reproduction for the museum and contributing to the creation, management and distribution of the NMAAHC's digital image and other digital assets and integrating of digital assets in the NMAAHC Digital Assets Management Systems (DAMS) with other NMAAHC and Smithsonian computer systems, including:
researching the copyright restrictions on collection items and coordinating permissions research and rights documentation;
negotiating for copyright permissions or non-exclusive licenses for copyrighted works in the collection;
ensuring that all images and other digital assets are distributed with the proper clearance and credit information; and
helping to prepare and process high-resolution digital image files and other digital assets for inclusion in the DAMS.
Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.
Qualification requirements must be met within 30 days of the job opportunity announcement closing date.
For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions viewable on the web at http://www.opm.gov/qualifications.
Qualifications
You may qualify for this position if you possess the following Selective Factor and Specialized Experience requirements below.
All applicants must meet the following Selector Factor Requirement (your application must show written evidence of this requirement):
SELECTIVE FACTOR: Experience with Digital Assets Management in a museum or similar environment.
In addition to meeting the selective factor above, applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service or comparable pay band system. For this position specialized experience is defined as using collections management and imaging software; preparing digital assets for ingestion and ingesting digital assets into a digital assets management system (DAMS), and maintaining digital assets and quality control in all systems.
Or Education: Two full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's or equivalent degree related to this position may be substituted to meet the experience requirements.
OR
Or a Combination: Education and experience, in part, totaling 100% may be combined to meet the basic qualifications.
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.
Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above, it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents, see the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options.
Please see Benefits at www.sihr.si.edu for a complete description.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
How you will be evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
Your application will be evaluated first for the basic qualifications described above. The applications that meet the basic qualifications will be evaluated further against the following criteria:
Knowledge of rights and reproductions policies and legal precedents for works in public collections, including fair use, public domain, personality rights, and similar usage/copyright issues to ensure images legal and appropriate use.
Ability to manage a high volume of image and other digital asset usage inquiries from a variety of sources, such as museums, universities, media outlets, scholars, commercial entities, publishers and the general public to facilitate research and provide wide access to museum collection objects.
Ability to communicate in writing with a variety of correspondents, such as the general public, art galleries, museums, publishers, businesses, media outlets, and universities, to manage permissions and requests.
Ability to prepare, upload, update and maintain digital assets in a digital asset management system (DAMS) and ensure DAMS integration with a Collection Information System and other system.
Important Note: Your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses to the occupational questionnaire or other assessment tool for consistency. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience.
Your resume should provide detailed information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options.
Please see Benefits at www.sihr.si.edu for a complete description.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
Your application package should include the following documents:
Your resume can be uploaded and attached to your application or created using the USA Jobs on-line resume builder. If you want to receive full credit for relevant experience your resume MUST contain the job title (including the occupational series and grade if it is Federal), duties, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, and salary.
USAJOBS has guidance on how to ensure that you submit a complete resume: If you have not written a Federal resume before, you may watch this Resume Writing Tutorial video on the USAJOBS YouTube channel, or read through a helpful Resume Writing FAQ article on the USAJOBS Help Site to learn what details you should, and should not, include in your resume. If any of the above information is not included in your resume we may not be able to fully credit you for your experience.
A copy of your most recent SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, which shows your position title, series, grade, step, salary, position occupied, and tenure group, to verify time-in-grade/competitive status. If you have previously held a higher grade and are applying based on that grade, you must provide a copy of the SF-50 showing you held the higher grade and/or have promotion potential to the grade being advertised. Do NOT submit Award SF-50s.
Unofficial school transcripts, if the position has an education requirement or if you are using education to qualify. If selected for the position, you must provide an official transcript before appointment.
Proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study, if applicable.
A recent performance evaluation.
Proof of Veteran's Preference - DD214 (Member 4 Copy) if you are requesting a special appointment authority, such as VRA or VEOA
Proof of severe disability if you are requesting special placement consideration
Proof of eligibility for a military spouse appointment, such as a permanent change station military order
Proof of eligibility for any other special appointing authority not specifically mentioned here.
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
Click on the "Apply Online" button on the upper right side of the page. Please Note:
You must apply for this position online through the 'Apply Online' button and submit required supplemental documents (if they are relevant to you).
You may submit required documents by uploading them online during the application process; OR You may manually fax required documents. Faxes are received by an automated system, not a physical fax machine. Documents that are faxed as part of the application process must be sent with the system generated cover sheet by the closing date. Documents faxed without the system generated coversheet are not retrievable and cannot be considered as part of the application package.
The complete application package, including any required documents, is due in the Smithsonian Office of Human Resources on the closing date of the announcement by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
If you are unable to apply online, paper applications may be accepted with prior approval of the Contact Person listed below.
SMITHSONIAN
Office of Human Resources
POB 37012, 600 Maryland Avenue, MRC 517
Suite 5060
Washington, District of Columbia 20013-7012
United States
Next steps
At the end of the application process you will be able to create and save a PDF file that contains your responses to the assessment questions. You may save this file as initial receipt of your application. After the job announcement closes, you will receive an email from the Smithsonian with confirmation of receipt. The Smithsonian receives many applications for each job. Each application is reviewed carefully which may take a few weeks. We will send you an e-mail to update you as we go through phases of the application review process. You may also check your application status by logging into www.usajobs.gov and selecting the tab "My USAJOBS;" e-mailing vacancy.info@si.edu; or by contacting the Office of Human Resources Representative listed.
Your application package should include the following documents:
Your resume can be uploaded and attached to your application or created using the USA Jobs on-line resume builder. If you want to receive full credit for relevant experience your resume MUST contain the job title (including the occupational series and grade if it is Federal), duties, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, and salary.
USAJOBS has guidance on how to ensure that you submit a complete resume: If you have not written a Federal resume before, you may watch this Resume Writing Tutorial video on the USAJOBS YouTube channel, or read through a helpful Resume Writing FAQ article on the USAJOBS Help Site to learn what details you should, and should not, include in your resume. If any of the above information is not included in your resume we may not be able to fully credit you for your experience.
A copy of your most recent SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, which shows your position title, series, grade, step, salary, position occupied, and tenure group, to verify time-in-grade/competitive status. If you have previously held a higher grade and are applying based on that grade, you must provide a copy of the SF-50 showing you held the higher grade and/or have promotion potential to the grade being advertised. Do NOT submit Award SF-50s.
Unofficial school transcripts, if the position has an education requirement or if you are using education to qualify. If selected for the position, you must provide an official transcript before appointment.
Proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study, if applicable.
A recent performance evaluation.
Proof of Veteran's Preference - DD214 (Member 4 Copy) if you are requesting a special appointment authority, such as VRA or VEOA
Proof of severe disability if you are requesting special placement consideration
Proof of eligibility for a military spouse appointment, such as a permanent change station military order
Proof of eligibility for any other special appointing authority not specifically mentioned here.
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
Click on the "Apply Online" button on the upper right side of the page. Please Note:
You must apply for this position online through the 'Apply Online' button and submit required supplemental documents (if they are relevant to you).
You may submit required documents by uploading them online during the application process; OR You may manually fax required documents. Faxes are received by an automated system, not a physical fax machine. Documents that are faxed as part of the application process must be sent with the system generated cover sheet by the closing date. Documents faxed without the system generated coversheet are not retrievable and cannot be considered as part of the application package.
The complete application package, including any required documents, is due in the Smithsonian Office of Human Resources on the closing date of the announcement by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
If you are unable to apply online, paper applications may be accepted with prior approval of the Contact Person listed below.
SMITHSONIAN
Office of Human Resources
POB 37012, 600 Maryland Avenue, MRC 517
Suite 5060
Washington, District of Columbia 20013-7012
United States
Next steps
At the end of the application process you will be able to create and save a PDF file that contains your responses to the assessment questions. You may save this file as initial receipt of your application. After the job announcement closes, you will receive an email from the Smithsonian with confirmation of receipt. The Smithsonian receives many applications for each job. Each application is reviewed carefully which may take a few weeks. We will send you an e-mail to update you as we go through phases of the application review process. You may also check your application status by logging into www.usajobs.gov and selecting the tab "My USAJOBS;" e-mailing vacancy.info@si.edu; or by contacting the Office of Human Resources Representative listed.
