The Art Institute of Chicago is an encyclopedic art museum with more than 260,000 works in the collection. Our collections database, known as CITI, is pivotal in organizing and providing access to the collection both for the public and internal staff. The Manager of Collection Information and Access plays a critical role as the institutional expert and analyst of the collections database.
Duties may include:
Serves as the lead for collections information usage including departmental cataloguing, online collections and related resources publishing, visitor facing interactives and mobile applications relying on collection information.
Managing the day to day activities related to collection information along with establishing long term strategic goals and priorities. Includes working with a steering committee to coordinate institutional goals and to maintain communication with stakeholders.
Working with curatorial staff and registrar to supervise content related to ongoing inventory projects and special projects. Involves project management for both short and long term efforts.
Manage collection information and ensure that online publishing initiatives containing collection information are supported to derive information from CITI in a standardized manner. Acts as an advocate for the database as the institutional standard for collections information.
Direct responsibility for client centered information architecture specification, metadata alignment, and standardization supporting internal operations, external publishing and other project needs.
Lead collections related projects, such as the collections website, web publishing, mobile applications, and gallery kiosks. Supervises process and workflow to ensure successful implementation and efficient use of resources.
Collaborate and direct programmers on new initiatives and ongoing maintenance. Sets the schedule and priorities for collections related projects. Acts a liaison between curatorial and the programming team to manage bugs, feature requests, and priorities. Manages process and reports on progress.
Manages the CITI training program for museum staff. Provide CITI support via phone, email, and in person and facilitate user oriented tasks in CITI, such as report writing, list exports, and various label production. Also involves writing ongoing documentation for CITI and related systems.
Represents Art Institute interests and manages relationships with outside vendors and other systems related to the collections database, such as Google Art Project, Artsy, and ARTStor.
Staying informed about technology, collection management, and standards changes and trends in the industry.
Assist the Director of Digital Experience and Access on projects
Desired Skills and Experience
The ideal candidate must have a Bachelor’s degree in museum studies, art history, digital humanities, or collections management or related; advanced degree in library science (MLS) is preferred. Minimum 2 to 5 years experience in a managerial capacity related to a collections management or library system desired. Project management experience strongly preferred. Expert knowledge of cataloging metadata standards and experience with training and documentation required. Knowledge of quality assurance testing, publishing (from databases to external applications), and information architecture. Appreciation and interest in data visualizations, open linked data, and collection explorers a major plus. Reporting to the Director of Digital Experience & Access, this position will collaborate directly with curatorial staff, a specialized development team, and supervise interns on an as needed basis. Qualified candidates should be highly collaborative, detail oriented, able to think around corners, love collections, and bring innovative perspectives on access.
Apply here:
https://csweb.artic.edu/recruit/applyjob.html
The Art Institute of Chicago is an equal opportunity, equal access employer fully committed to achieving a diverse workforce.