Archival Coordinator - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Archival Coordinator - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Cornell University

Department Background:

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a globally recognized leader in technology, data management, and large-scale citizen science supporting birds and biodiversity conservation. We curate more than a petabyte of digital assets, one billion bird sightings, and leverage innovative big data analysis tools and machine learning to produce web applications and services to empower a global community of bird and nature enthusiasts, researchers, conservationists, and educators. The Lab is in an incredible growth phase and navigating exciting challenges to scale our data-driven tools and services for conservation communities in all corners of the globe. eBird collaborates with hundreds of regional organizations in more than 80 countries who are using eBird, Merlin Bird ID, Birds of the World, Macaulay Library, and other resources as a platform to advance their conservation goals.

Position Summary:

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking a creative, mission-driven Archival Coordinator based in Ithaca, New York in the Macaulay Library to focus on engaging with the international community of media contributors. The Macaulay Library is an intergenerational project to catalog and share the wonders of the natural world through sounds and images. As part of a team of software engineers, outreach specialists, machine learning researchers, conservation scientists, and ornithologists this role will contribute to the Macaulay Library's legacy in museum science, behavioral ecology, bioacoustics, and community outreach by inspiring a global community to contribute scientifically valuable media to the archive.

The Archival Coordinator's primary responsibility is to engage birders to contribute media and annotations via eBird and support media being archived in the Macaulay Library. We are looking for someone with deep expertise in bird identification, avian life history, connections to the global birding community, and a passion for scientific collections. To support the community contributing media, the successful candidate will have advanced birding skills and be able to: identify birds by sight and sound, add age/sex labels (and other metadata) to birds in images/recordings, gather media in the field (sounds, photos) in challenging conditions, edit audio recordings, and demonstrate in-depth understanding of avian biogeographic variation, ecology, migration, behavior, and taxonomy.

This role will contribute to the Macaulay Library, Merlin, and eBird in the following ways:

Project Outreach: Provide day-to-day functional leadership to grow the global community of media contributors uploading recordings via eBird and traditional archival methods. Engage with media recordists to facilitate archival of scientifically valuable media. Train staff, community leaders, students, and professionals in the field on best practices for data collection and media curation. Represent the eBird, Merlin, Macaulay Library, and Cornell Lab of Ornithology at international and regional scales.

Data Curation: Utilize expert-level bird expertise and specialized knowledge of sound recording to archive and develop best practices. Utilize advanced knowledge of taxonomy, avian identification, biogeography, and animal behavior to address issues of data quality within the Macaulay Library archive and eBird. Digitization and archival of historical analog recordings and improving the systems for doing so.

Data Quality: Engage the recordist community and support community leaders in successfully participating in contributing high-quality data to the Macaulay Library through participation in eBird and Merlin.

Training Workshops: Lead or participate in capacity building training programs when sound recording instructor is needed.

Community Support: Provide day-to-day support for media recordists who are contributing to and using the Lab's resources.

This is a full-time (40 hours/week) Contract College position that is based in Ithaca, NY at the Lab of Ornithology approximately 3 miles from Cornell's main Ithaca campus. This position follows an in-person-to-home hybrid work arrangement after a period of orientation and training. This hybrid work arrangement is subject to change.

What You Need (Qualifications):

We are seeking a team member who is organized, detail oriented, and passionate about collaboration and the environment.

• Bachelor's degree in biology, ecology, information science, or related field and 2 to 4 years relevant experience or equivalent combination.
• Knowledge of birds of the world, including advanced field identification skills by sight and sound of thousands of species of birds, ability to identify birds to age/sex and subspecies, understanding of geographic variation, animal behavior, and avian taxonomy.
• 3+ years of experience or equivalent working across cultures in conservation, ornithology, or related field.
• 3+ years of experience in the field, collecting media of birds (photos, sounds, video), curating metadata, and contributing to media archives.
• Deep understanding of the birding community and their habits recording media in the field.
• High degree of understanding of core concepts of data curation.
• High level of proficiency editing media using specialized software, such as Adobe Audition and Photoshop.
• Ability to travel to remote field locations when necessary.
• Must have ability to obtain and maintain a valid passport and driver's license.

If you possess these experiences and skills this may be the role for you! There are a few other qualifications we would view as incredibly helpful in this role, to include:

• Master's degree in ornithology or related field preferred.
• Proficiency in R and/or other data analysis tools to inform collections management decisions.
• International birding tour leading skills.
• High level of proficiency with content management systems to manage curated materials.
• Ability to prioritize activities and exercise sound judgement in discussions with external collaborators.
• Provide high level of initiative to anticipate needs of the project and fulfill project objectives with very minimal supervision.
• Strong interpersonal skills to develop trust with external collaborators and encourage participation in projects.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all levels of management and staff internally and externally.

Rewards and Benefits

• This position is eligible for a hybrid work arrangement. Employees typically perform this role
  remotely 2 day per week and in-person 3 days per week. The university reserves the right to modify, suspend, revoke or terminate the hybrid work arrangement at any time.
• This position is based in Ithaca, New York. Employees who work remotely may receive
  multiple W-2 Forms depending on their work location. The New York Convenience of employer guidelines require New York State individual tax reporting and withholding for this position. Additional individual state income tax filings may also be required if working temporarily outside of New York State.
• Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, sustainability, and diversity initiatives.
• Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: https://hr.cornell.edu/benefits-pay.
• Our leave provisions include health and personal leave, three weeks of vacation and 13 holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and an end of the year winter break from December 25-January 1 and two floating holidays. Learn more about holiday and accrued time off, visit: https://hr.cornell.edu/about/employment-policy-practice/employment-policies/time-and-leaves/holiday-and-accrued-time
• Cornell's impressive educational benefits include tuition-free Extramural Study and Employee Degree Program, tuition aid for external education, and Cornell Children's Tuition Assistance Program.
• Follow this link to learn more about the Total Rewards of Working at Cornell: https://hr.cornell.edu/jobs/your-total-rewards.

Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position

Relocation assistance is not available for this position

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