Collections Head

Roles and responsibilities

The Head, Collections Management will be responsible to manage the acquisition, appraisal, retention, and disposal functions of the information lifecycle for hardcopy records, including the schedules, systems and tools required under the Archives program.

Key Result Areas:

Manage the process of identifying records of archival value, and the management of hardcopy archival records in the warehouse
Supervise the record sentencing functions of inactive hardcopy materials to appraise for record value, including the identification of temporary and archival (permanent) value records
Identify, acquire, appraise, arrange, describe, store, preserve, and access inactive hardcopy and physical records
Manage the archival warehouse storage facility, including material transfers, access, and retrieval of archives
Manage oversight and eventual destruction of sentenced records
Develop strategic plans for physical archives, including budgetary constraints and timelines for archival projects
Perform other reasonable tasks as assigned by supervisor
Leadership and Team Management
Lead the Collections Team: Oversee a team of collections professionals, providing guidance, mentorship, and leadership to ensure they meet individual and team performance goals.
Training and Development: Develop training programs for the collections team to enhance their skills, particularly in negotiation, customer service, and regulatory compliance.
Performance Monitoring: Monitor the team’s performance, ensuring collections targets are met, and implement strategies to improve performance where necessary.
Staffing and Resource Allocation: Ensure that the collections team is adequately staffed and that resources are effectively allocated to handle workloads efficiently.

Desired candidate profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Management, Information Technology, Archiving, Library Science, or other relevant discipline; Master’s preferred. Demonstrable evidence of continuous learning in the field of Information Management. Recognized professional qualifications such as Certified Archivist (CA), Digital Archives Specialist (DAS), Certified Records Manager (CRM), Information Governance Professional (IGP) and/or an Archival Management Certificate are an advantage
• 6-8 years of relevant full-time work experience, 2 of which at a supervisory level
• Expert understanding of core archival principles – provenance and original order; metadata and descriptive standards, accessioning, acquisition, appraisal, and problem solving
• Expert knowledge of arrangement & description, preservation techniques, and research & reference services
• Expert knowledge of archival standards of records and archive management, appraisal, arrangement, and description.
• Strong interpersonal, collaborative, and project management skills
• Understanding of legal, ethical, and privacy issues related to archival materials, e.g., copyright, donor agreements, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• Experience managing a hardcopy archival program and repository, including the people, process, and technological aspects of that facility
• Experience in the implementation and innovation of archival solutions in a complex and distributed corporate environment
• Strong attention to detail
• Excellent writing skills with the ability to draft and edit a variety of written reports and communications and to articulate ideas clearly and concisely; Arabic proficiency is an advantage
• Proficiency in MS Office applications