Av Conservation Specialist

Posted: 24/10/2024- Closing Date: 10/11/2024- Salary: $72,525.00 - $78,001.00- Job Type: Ongoing / Non-ongoing; Full time- Location: Canberra- Job Category: Arts, Culture**About the National Film and Sound Archive**

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is Australia’s audiovisual archive, telling the national story by collecting, preserving and sharing audiovisual media, the cultural experience platforms of our time. The collection itself dates back to 1935, making it one of the world’s oldest audiovisual collections. It is also one of the country’s most used cultural collections, with around 125 million views of collection content each year. The NFSA is in a period of significant change. Following increased Government investment, the institution is in a process of digital transformation, establishing the NFSA as Australia’s most dynamic and valued cultural organisation. We are rebuilding our curatorial workforce and developing the NFSA’s capacity to digitise our collection at scale - to preserve it for the future, to make sure it can be discovered, and to share it with all Australians.

We continue to work on developing a stable, secure and future-proof workforce across our four physical sites based in Canberra and Mitchell in the ACT as well as in Sydney and Melbourne.

We are also undergoing a program of business improvement for many of our corporate systems to improve efficiency and reduce manual handling.

We are an ambitious organisation, and we aim to be an employer of choice within the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector, providing exciting and challenging work, as well as favourable employment conditions and unique development opportunities for our staff.

**About the Team**

The Conservation team is part of the Conservation and Collection Management Section of the Collection Preservation Branch. The team conducts an extensive work program providing a range of activities for the preservation and ongoing care of the audiovisual, documents and artefacts collection.

The team has two streams: The Audiovisual (AV) Conservation team, prepares and preservesaudiovisual material for digitisation, curatorial and access programs, conduct research and analysis of audiovisual materials. The Collection Conservation team, is responsible for the documents and artefacts collection, including interventive treatments, exhibition preparation, condition reporting and research. Both teams coordinate to undertake a range of collection care programs such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM), chemical management, collection assessments and procedures for hazards in collections.

The team provides technical advice regarding access and digitisation requests, undertakes conservation works, including complex conservation works and ensures the national audiovisual collection is preserved in accordance with current policies and procedures.

**The Opportunity**

Audiovisual Conservation Specialist plays a key role in preparing and preserving the physical audiovisual collection and ensuring the program meets the strategic and operational requirements of the NFSA. This role will support the Team Leader, AV Conservation and AV Conservation Coordinators to maintain the conservation lab equipment and supplies and training new staff. The position will undertake simple to complex AV Conservation treatment, research into AV Conservation and support the team to develop and maintain policies and procedures.
- Please note: This recruitment process is intended to fill both current and future vacancies. While the position on offer is ongoing, a merit pool of suitable applicants may be established to fill similar ongoing and non-ongoing positions within the next 18-months._

Under general direction, this position is responsible for delivering the following functions:

- Carry out AV conservation tasks including:

- examination,
- research,
- conservation treatment; and
- identify the content of AV materials in their various formats, to ascertain intellectual and physical content.
- Update and review technical procedures and process documentation.
- Provide technical advice and training to Conservation staff and internal clients.
- Undertake complicated AV technical selections, examinations, and conservation treatment.
- Carry out and report on conservation projects allocated across Audiovisual Conservation Specialists.
- Contribute to the development and delivery of core AV conservation and research as well as the quality control of the AV work through the team.

**Selection Criteria**
- Demonstrated capacity to prioritise workflows and coordinate resources, demonstrate good time management and effective written and oral communication skills
- Experience with digital systems including collection management systems for the tracking of archival objects and workflows.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team to creatively solve problems and with a high degree of flexibility.

**Desire