The Herbarium Digital Asset Manager reports to the Assistant Director of the Herbarium for Botanical Information Management and is responsible for the direction and management of the Herbarium’s Digital Imaging Center and the acquisition, management, long-term preservation, and access to the multimedia assets and associated metadata produced for the Garden’s C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium. The position oversees the collection of 3.6 million herbarium specimen images, field photographs, and other scientific and scholarly digital materials, a collection rapidly expanding to include all 7.8 million digitized specimens and numerous other NYBG Science Division multimedia assets. The position requires knowledge of digital photography and lighting, still image post-processing methods and software, asset management within a collections management system, metadata standards, rights and usage, and digital image archiving. The position will be responsible for training and supervising imaging staff over multiple projects and refining streamlined digitization workflows.
Additionally, this position supports, through actions and conduct, NYBG’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility initiatives and helps to build and maintain an inclusive organization culture throughout the institution.
The New York Botanical Garden is committed to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment, and further recognizes that diversity in our workforce fosters excellence in our mission of advocating for the plants of the world. Leveraging the strong foundation of existing policies and practices, NYBG will advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through a number of institutional initiatives presented through this plan. Our aspiration is to continue to cultivate a workforce and institution that is as diverse as the communities we serve and the audiences we engage.
Specific Duties and Responsibilities:
- Manage the daily operation of the highly productive Digital Imaging Center and the digital assets produced therein for the Virtual Herbarium, including:
- Set up and maintenance of digitization equipment including multiple digital SLR cameras and lenses, lighting, scanners, and computer equipment; troubleshoot equipment and software problems; interact with vendors and technical staff.
- Oversee and train staff and volunteers to capture digital images of herbarium specimens and to digitize text, photographs, photographic slides, and other illustrative material; provide step-by-step instructions in operation of equipment and software; develop and update user manuals.
- Keep current with, refine, contribute to, and employ community best practices for efficient imaging workflows; maintain archival image quality control standards across multiple imaging stations; update digitization documentation.
- Manage, post-process, archive, and import to the collections management system all specimen images captured in the Digital Imaging Center, an average 20,000-60,000 per month, ±300,000-500,000/year.
- Manage the Virtual Herbarium digital asset archive; coordinate with the IT Department to purchase, expand, and migrate herbarium asset storage.
- Keep current with and employ best practices for image post-processing, archiving, usage rights and licensing, and multimedia metadata standards for biodiversity collections.
- Support and track status of multiple concurrent rapid digitization projects.
- Help prepare written text for grant proposals to funding agencies to support Virtual Herbarium digitization projects.
- Keep abreast of developments in digital imaging technologies, digital asset management tools, and web display applications for images and digital publishing; recommend upgrades as they apply to the Virtual Herbarium.
- Give presentations on NYBG digital asset management and digitization projects to visitors, donors, colleagues, and at national and international professional meetings.
- Ensure the Digital Imaging Center meets the needs of staff and other scientific and scholarly users in terms of quantity, quality, and type of images and data provided; fulfill Virtual Herbarium image requests.
Requirements:
- Demonstrated experience in digital project management, digital imaging and digital photography standards, management and long-term preservation of digital images.
- Experience in a museum or research library is strongly encouraged.
- Operating and maintaining digitization equipment, including digital SLR cameras, lighting, and scanners;
- Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom; Microsoft Excel and Access;
- Overseeing the production, post-processing, and management of large numbers of digital images;
- Community-based best practices for digital photography, image color management and profiling;
- All aspects of technical, administrative, and descriptive image metadata, including XMP, EXIF, and IPTC; familiarity with Audubon Core;
- Digital asset management systems and museum collections management systems, especially Axiell EMu;
- Training and supervising staff;
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Preferable skills:
- Background in science, especially botany and taxonomy;
- Bulk image processing programs and general-purpose scripting languages (e.g. Perl, PowerShell, Python)
To apply, follow this link:
https://www.nybg.org/about/work-with-us/employment/?p=job%2FoSQKdfwp