Clarification from the agency

This position is open to all U.S. Citizens or U.S. Nationals. Note: Federal employees with permanent status or individuals eligible for special appointing authorities may also apply to Job Announcement #22R-JW-306737-MPA-AAA. More than one selection may be made from this announcement.

• Processes newly accessioned archival collections of personal papers and historical records of institutions, societies, galleries and associations of U.S. Latino art and artists according to national archival standards and best practices and the Archives’ written guidelines and procedures.
• Prepares well-written, concise and organized finding aids for collections documenting the history of Latino art that meet current archival descriptive standards and best practices, including DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) and the Archives’ written guidelines and procedures.
• Supports the work of the subject expert Collections Specialist on curatorial projects related to research, exhibition development, collecting, and correlative public and educational programs focused on U.S. Latino art and artists. 
• Assesses new acquisitions documenting the history of Latino art to determine physical condition, format types, physical access level, research value and preservation needs.
• Participates in Smithsonian Latino Center pan-institutional planning and coordination meetings in support of expanding the representation of the U.S. Latino experience at the Smithsonian Institution.

ATTENTION: Due to the large number of qualified applicants for positions of this type, this job announcement will close at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on either: (A) The closing date listed above or (B) The date that 100 applications are received; whichever occurs first. If the announcement closes on the date that 100 applications are received, all applications submitted by 11:59pm that day will be given consideration, including those in excess of 100.

We encourage applicants to apply as soon as possible to ensure their applications are submitted before the announcement closes. We will not consider applications which are late due to the announcement closing once the above number of applications is reached.

Conditions of employment

• Pass Pre-employment Background Investigation
• May need to complete a Probationary Period
• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Conditions of Employment

For the latest information on the COVID-19 vaccination requirements and its impact on your application, click on Smithsonian Institution’s Frequently Asked Questions. 

Qualification requirements must be met within 30 days of the job 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.

Must Be Able to Lift Up to 25 lbs.

Qualifications

All applicants must meet the basic education requirements below:

1. Bachelor's degree in archival science or bachelor's degree with a major that includes 18 semester hours in archival science, history and/or in political science or government, and 12 semester hours in one or any combination of the following: archival science, history, American civilization, economics, political science, public administration, or government.

or   

      2. Combination of education and experience - at least 30 semester hours that included courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or                additional education.

Evaluation of Experience:

Professional experience must have been in archival science, or in a directly related field of work such as history that involved the collection, appraisal, analysis, or synthesis of information having historical or archival values. The following are illustrative of kinds of experience that may be accepted as meeting the professional experience requirements: (1) experience as an archivist in Federal, state, religious institution, business, or other archives, or in manuscript depositories, and (2) experience of an archival nature that involved research in archival science, or in a directly related field such as history, government, economics, political science, international relations, or international law.

In addition to the basic requirement above, applicants must meet one of the following:

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-7 level in the Federal Service or comparable pay band system. For this position specialized experience is defined as applying national archival standards, methodology, and best practices to all the activities that comprise collections archival processing, including arrangement, description in electronic formats, and preservation of archival collections comprised of a variety of media formats typically found in contemporary archival collections.  

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.

Or Education: Two full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master’s or equivalent degree related to the position may be substituted to meet the experience requirements.

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications. For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards.

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.

SPECIAL NOTE:

• Unofficial school transcripts (undergraduate and graduate) must be submitted with your application package by the closing date of the vacancy announcement.
• If you have foreign education, you must show proof by the closing date of the vacancy announcement that education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign educational credentials. Transcripts and proof of the evaluations must be submitted within your application package as indicated under “Required Documents”. Applicants may use the following websites http://www.naces.org/, http://www.fceatlanta.com/, or www.ies.aacrao.org  to obtain these evaluations.

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 basic and current archival principles, concepts, methodology and procedures for performance in activities that comprise archival collections processing, arrangement, preservation and description.
• Ability to apply DACS EAD, Archivists’ Toolkit and/or ArchivesSpace requirements when creating finding aids for archives and manuscript collections.
• Knowledge of the Latino experience and history of Latino art in the United States.
• Ability to work with varied types of archival and manuscript collections – manuscripts, personal papers and the historical records of an institution, business or association – containing a wide variety of archival formats such as documents, diaries, sketches, sketchbooks, photographic materials, analog audiovisual materials and born-digital formats.
• ­­­­­­­­­­Ability to communicate orally and interact effectively with a wide variety of staff, and other personnel within and outside the Archives of American Art.

Applicants who meet or exceed minimum qualifications will be assigned to one of three category groups based on job-related criteria:

Best Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements and excels in most of the job related competencies above.

Better Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements and satisfies most of the job related competencies above.

Good Category - Meets the minimum qualification requirements, but does not satisfy most of the job related competencies above to a substantive degree.

This category rating process does not add veterans' preference points or apply the "rule of three", but protects the rights of veterans by placing them ahead of non-preference eligibles within each category. A selecting official may make selections from the highest quality category (Best Category) provided no preference eligible in that category is passed over to select a non-preference eligible in that category unless the requirements of 5 U.S.C. 3317(b) or 3318(b) are satisfied. Preference eligibles who meet minimum qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent must be listed in the highest quality category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-9 grade level or higher. Applicants who have not submitted a resume in the USAjobs system and/or have not answered all of the vacancy questions will not be considered for this position.

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 sufficient information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.