The Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre (OJA), seeks a skilled, enthusiastic and motivated Reference Archivist to serve our active network of donors, researchers, and supporters.
The successful candidate will be responsible for archival services that support and expand the OJA’s engagement with the public and facilitates access to the OJA’s archival collections. These services include providing direct reference assistance to a wide range of remote and in-person researchers and users, supporting storytelling and oral history initiatives, managing record donation inquiries, developing research aids and guides for users, and programming the use of the OJA’s research room and storytelling lab. This role also involves assisting with other outreach activities as needed.
Click here to learn more about the role and apply!
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Reference Responsibilities
- Responds to and provides reference services to a range of publics including: academics, genealogists, cultural producers, educators, community organizations, the general public, and internal UJA staff
- Develops audience-appropriate research guides and tools for accessing the OJA’s collection, both in-person and online
- Applies applicable privacy and access procedures according to legislation and OJA policies
- Completes reproduction requests and all legal contracts for use and publication
- Performs basic preservation actions as required
- Digitizes as required and ingests collections into OJA’s digital repository
- Monitors use of reference room and storytelling lab (to open in late 2027)
Outreach Responsibilities
- Develops programming opportunities for OJA’s storytelling lab
- Curates storytelling submissions received through the OJA’s website
- Contributes content to OJA’s newsletters, UJA’s communications channels, and OJA’s social media platforms.
- Works closely with archivists to profile and highlight new acquisitions and researcher profiles across OJA platforms
- Develops and leads community archival literacy workshops
Other responsibilities
- Supports the OJA team with additional outreach and archival work as needed, including physical control and collection management responsibilities, curatorial research and design, speaking engagements, and walking tour administration.
