WHEATON ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS – PROCESSING ARCHIVIST
Position Summary
The Wheaton Library and Archives seeks a skilled, collaborative, innovative, and enthusiastic professional for a Processing Archivist position. This role plays a critical part in the Archives & Special Collections’ mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible Wheaton College’s institutional archives and special collections, ensuring long-term access, organization, and stewardship of materials and discoverability for diverse users. The Processing Archivist works collegially and collaboratively within the Archives & Special Collections to ensure excellence and integrity in its collections, services, and programs, and across the Library to promote its mission and values. In partnership with colleagues, the Processing Archivist will plan and manage large and small-scale processing projects, accession new materials, supervise student workers, coordinate with donors, and ensure timely access to archival materials accessioned by Wheaton’s archival repositories. The Processing Archivist will receive all necessary training as well as ongoing mentoring and professional development support. The position is full time and will pay $55-60,000 annually.
Under the general supervision of the Head Archivist, the successful candidate will:
- Arrange, rehouse, and preserve archival records, working across diverse physical and digital formats, in accordance with nationally accepted archival principles, standards, and best practices.
- Describe archival collections according to nationally accepted archival standards, generating EAD-encoded finding aids in the repository's collections management database, ArchivesSpace, and creating records in MARC format to upload to the Library's online public access catalog.
- Appraise and accession new collection materials, exercising professional judgement to ascertain the ongoing research value of new collections while faithfully and independently representing administrative, legal, and descriptive information about new materials in ArchivesSpace.
- Contribute to management and control activities, including collections assessment, stacks and equipment maintenance, space planning, and archival supplies monitoring.
- Serve on cross-department initiatives, including digital exhibits and preservation activities, contributing to preservation and reformatting activities.
- Participate in unit-wide meetings, decision-making, and planning activities.
- Supervise, train, and manage archival student workers.
- Provide Manuscripts Reading Room desk coverage on occasion, and support reference and research services as needed.
This job description is intended to represent key areas of responsibilities; specific assignments may vary from time to time, and other duties may be assigned.
Professional Required Qualifications
- Master’s degree in library and information science from an ALA-accredited program in hand or in progress, or equivalent combination of advanced degree in a relevant discipline (Museum Studies, Public History, History) and related experience.
- 1-3 years of experience in a library, archives, or museum setting, working with diverse collections and users.
- Ability to build productive working relationships and collaborate effectively across teams and with external partners.
- Capacity to work autonomously, exercise professional judgement, and make independent decisions within the scope of assignments.
- Ability to prioritize work, manage multiple tasks, and complete projects in a timely manner.
- Experience using Microsoft Office suite and comfortable learning new systems and platforms, and applications.
- Superior written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
- Committed to diversity, growth, and dynamic environments; desire to grow in professional role and develop further expertise.
Professional Preferred Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience appraising, arranging, describing, and preserving format-diverse archival collections of varying size and complexity in a professional setting.
- Understanding of tools, platforms, and software used to manage, preserve, and provide access to physical and digital archival records, such as ArchivesSpace and Preservica.
- Demonstrated knowledge of, or recent coursework in metadata standards, particularly Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), AACR2, RDA, and LCSH.
- Subject familiarity with one or more of the collecting foci of the Archives & Special Collections is preferred, particularly the history of evangelical Christianity in the United States.
Faith Requirements
- Affirmation of the Wheaton College Statement of Faith as a faithful expression of one’s own theological convictions
- Affirmation of the biblical standards for Christian character and God-honoring behavior described throughout the Wheaton College Community Covenant, and promise to adhere to them in personal practice
- Support of the Wheaton College Christ-Centered Diversity Commitment, the Gender Equity Vision Statement, and the College’s Convictions on Human Sexuality. These commitments can be found on the Wheaton College website.
Physical Requirements - The employee is regularly required to sit, talk, or hear; frequently required to use repetitive hand motion, handle or feel, climb ladders, work with dusty materials, bend or lift up to 40 pounds.
FLSA Status - Exempt
Updated: June 2026
