The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) is seeking an innovative and creative conservation professional to lead its nationally-recognized book conservation laboratory. The successful candidate will be joining the NEDCC Senior Management team and will benefit from working in a collaborative atmosphere with digital imaging specialists and conservators in other specialties. The book conservation laboratory contributes a significant amount to NEDCC’s fiscal health with work from a broad spectrum of cultural institutions and private clients. Volumes conserved at NEDCC are varied and may include rare books and pamphlets, bound manuscripts and prints, and scrapbooks and albums. The Center has treated some of the nation’s most significant volumes, such as William Bradford’s manuscript history of the Plymouth Plantation; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s journals of the Corps of Discovery Expedition; the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon; and Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House scrapbooks. See NEDCC Stories for other projects of note.
The Director of Book Conservation is responsible for: Cultivating prospective clients; building relationships and conferring with clients nationwide to develop appropriate treatment proposals; performing collections assessments; leading a staff of professional book conservators who perform consultations, treatments, and collections assessments; setting and monitoring standards for quality and productivity; working closely with NEDCC’s other department heads on joint projects; and presenting at national conferences. In addition, the role of the Director of Book Conservation as a member of NEDCC’s senior management team includes hiring, strategic planning, policy development, and other NEDCC-wide initiatives that have a broad impact on the preservation of cultural heritage collections nationwide.
Qualifications
- detailed knowledge of and hands-on experience in book conservation
- strong oral and written communication skills
- excellent relationship-building skills
- a solid educational and/or practical foundation in book conservation
- commitment to both the highest quality conservation treatment results and the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice
- leadership and management skills to support a high-quality, efficient and productive work environment
About NEDCC
Founded in 1973, NEDCC specializes in the conservation and digitization of paper-based materials and has recently expanded its services to include preservation of audio recordings. NEDCC’s mission is to improve the preservation efforts of libraries, archives, historical organizations, museums, and other repositories; to provide the highest quality conservation and reformatting services to collections-holding institutions; and to provide leadership in preservation, conservation, and digital reformatting. Its services include book, paper, and photograph conservation; digital reformatting (imaging and audio); assessments and consultations; disaster assistance; and workshops and conferences. NEDCC is located in Andover, MA, twenty-five miles north of Boston. For more information, please visit www.nedcc.org.
Application Process
NEDCC is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Salary and benefits are competitive. This position will remain open until filled. Feel free to direct any preliminary questions about the position to Bill Veillette. To apply, please send a cover letter and resume in a single PDF to Bill Veillette, Executive Director, bveillette@nedcc.org.
This job announcement has been updated on May 14, 2018.