Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to all U.S. Citizens. Please be advised that federal retired annuitant candidates may only be considered as temporary employees if the role can be filled in that capacity.

The incumbent serves as an Archivist and accessions, arranges, describes, preserves, manages and provides reference services to the permanent record collection of the Architect of the Capitol. Additionally, the Archivist provides support for the agency records management program.

The preferred candidate will have experience working with architectural drawings, construction records and an understanding of the built environment.

This is a career ladder position requiring the incumbent to perform progressively more complex duties and responsibilities leading to the full performance level.

MAJOR DUTIES:

Archival Description

The incumbent contributes to the maintenance and update of archival finding aids and collection management systems.

Assigns records to record groups, series, and subseries. Contributes research to support determining the provenance of ambiguous records collections. Suggests where finding aids may be needed and contributes to efforts to identify and develop needed finding aids. 

With guidance, trains and develops archival description and collection management systems training content for the branch staff. Provides technical support for the collection managing systems. Contributes to the development of the archival description work plan, priorities, and metrics. Advises the supervisor of progress, trends and issues.

Archival Projects and Records Management 

The incumbent performs assigned archival projects and activities, such as but not limited to archival accessioning, appraisal, arrangement, holdings maintenance, preservation, and reformatting according to archival principles and best practices to increase accessibility and ensure the safe handling of archival records.

Assists in the planning, scoping, prioritizing, management, and tracking of archival projects. Contributes to the development of internal archival procedures, quality controls, and metrics.

Assists with archival space and physical collection planning, management, environmental monitoring and integrated pest management. Supports the Curator Division emergency response team during an event.

Supports the identification, planning, and coordination to achieve the transfer of eligible permanent records. Provides input for records appraisals for records management schedule.

Provides basic technical direction for junior archival staff and archivist aides (student interns). Provides outreach and helps generate outreach content to promote the archival collection, records management and branch services to agency staff.

Reference and Research Services 

The incumbent provides comprehensive references and research to support agency leadership and employees with official research needs related to the archival collection and agency history. Assists with identifying and capturing historical agency information from non-AOC repositories and sources that contribute to the documentation and understanding of historical agency subject matter. Maintains access safeguards.

Works with higher graded team members in establishing goals and creates priorities for archival and research projects. Assists in performing research on the administrative history of the agency in response to requests from the Architect and senior staff and in facilitating planning.

Research is inclusive and is performed in the records of the Architect of the Capitol and other repositories holding materials related to the Capitol complex. Prepares summaries of findings. Contributes to the collection of oral histories with agency leadership and staff.

The incumbent must follow all relevant safety rules, regulations, and standard operating procedures. The incumbent must utilize knowledge of and must comply with all OSHA safety rules and regulations to ensure that work progresses in a safe manner. Provides or receives training, either on-the-job or through classroom training, to ensure that all safety practices and equipment are fully utilized. 

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen.
• You must be able to pass a drug test.
• Your resume and question responses must demonstrate the job-related KSAs.
• You must meet the definition of specialized experience.

Candidates must have a focus on architectural records and drawings.

Qualifications

You must meet the United States Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) qualification requirements (including specialized experience and/or educational requirements) for the advertised position. You must meet all eligibility and qualifications requirements by the closing date of the job announcement. Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on the OPM web site at OPM qualification standards

1. Specialized Experience

Experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, candidates must have at least 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as having experience performing the following types of tasks on a regular and recurring basis: (1) Contributing data entry and quality controls for electronic archival collection management systems; (2) Generating archival finding aids; (3) Conducting archival accessioning and holdings maintenance; (4) Researching records and applying access restrictions to respond to records and information requests.

Evaluation of Experience: Professional experience for this position 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.

--OR—

2. Graduate Education Two (2) years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Masters’ degree in archival science, history, American civilization, economics, political science, public administration, or government.

--OR--

3. Combination of Graduate Education and Professional Experience Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate-level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Review your resume and responses carefully. Your eligibility for consideration and qualifications for the position will be determined based upon a review of your detailed resume and your responses to job specific self-assessment questions.

Your resume will be evaluated based on evidence of your ability to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for this position, possession of any specialized experience, and how well your background and experience relates to the self-assessment questions in the job announcement. The self-assessment questions relate to the following knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies:

-Archival Description

-Archival and Preservation Projects

-Reference and Research

-Communication

Your responses to the self assessment questions serve as the basis for your initial rating. You will receive a numerical score based on your responses to these questions. Next, your responses will be evaluated by a Human Resources Specialist and/or a subject matter expert against the information provided in your resume and optional cover letter. Your resume must support your answers to the self assessment questions. Falsifying your background, education, and/or experience is cause for not hiring you or disqualification for further consideration.

Please note that a complete application is required for consideration. (Please review the “Required Documents” section of this job announcement to see what must be included in a complete application).
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