About ITMA
The Irish Traditional Music Archive / Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann (ITMA) is the national public reference archive and resource centre for the traditional song, instrumental music, and dance of Ireland. Based at 73 Merrion Square, Dublin, ITMA holds the largest collection of Irish traditional music, song, and dance in existence. ITMA is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee and is primarily funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, the OPW and Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Audio Digitisation Assistant
A new position of Audio Digitisation Assistant will arise in May 2023 to work directly with ITMA’s audio collections, ensuring that the original carriers are preserved and that recordings are digitised for the purpose of preservation and access.

This role requires a focused and highly capable individual who would work with ITMA’s Digital Archivist to deliver on ITMA’s digitisation ambitions. ITMA needs assistance to process its backlog of physical audio collections. By digitising these materials, the successful candidate will help ITMA to preserve important traditional music recordings and democratise access to our collections. At present, we are making a concerted effort to expand our digitisation studio into a state-of-the-art suite, one of the best in the country. The successful candidate will play a key role in growing ITMA’s digitisation capacity.

Job description
This job description provides an outline of the key responsibilities of the role.

Title: Audio Digitisation Assistant

Reporting to: ITMA Digital Archivist, as well as Director (CEO) of ITMA

Purpose: To process ITMA’s audio collections, ensuring that the original carriers are preserved and that recordings are digitised for the purpose of preservation and access.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Assist in the assessment of incoming multi-media collections to ITMA.
• Assess the condition of original audio carriers.
• Create accession lists and inventories of collections.
• Process some physical materials for preservation storage.
• Label and organise physical materials.
• Digitise audio collections of various formats in line with archival best practice.
• Perform routine maintenance and upkeep duties on ITMA playback devices.
• Perform some cataloguing duties to describe collections and their contents.
• Liaise with cataloguers and archival staff to ensure collections are processed to defined workflows.
• Support the Digital Archivist and archival team in everyday operations.
• In line with the evolving needs of the organisation, occasionally additional duties may be assigned.

Ideal Candidate
ITMA is entering an exciting phase of growth and development. We are seeking a highly motivated, organised, and diligent individual who will bring energy and enthusiasm to our team. The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate examples from their past experience, work, and/or training which highlight their capability and desire for this role.

Candidate Requirements: 

• A solid working knowledge of a wide variety of media formats including, but not limited to shellac discs, vinyl discs, cassettes, and magnetic tape formats.
• Experience with playback in both analogue and digital formats including, but not limited to reel-to-reel, cassettes, DAT tapes and phonograph records.
• Some familiarity with playback devices including, but not limited to reel-to-reel and turntable.
• A basic knowledge of the digitisation process.
• A basic knowledge of signal routing.
• A basic understanding of EQ standards for playback.
• Familiarity with approaches for the preservation and storage of archival collections.
• Demonstrable experience of performing well as part of a team.
• Effective communication skills.

The following skills, experience and interests would be an advantage:

• A basic understanding of, and experience with, ProTools/other DAW workflows.
• Experience and knowledge of Irish traditional music, song, and dance
• Competence in spoken and written Irish
• Familiarity with cultural/arts infrastructure within which ITMA operates in Ireland, and/or relevant knowledge of comparable cultural arts structures elsewhere

Terms and Conditions
The post will be offered as an initial 1 year fixed-term contract with a 3 month probation period. The salary will range from €30,813-€37,515 and will be determined by the experience of the candidate among other factors.

This position will be based at ITMA, 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland.

A complete list of benefits, terms and conditions as laid out in the ITMA Employee Handbook will be made available to the successful candidate.

Application
Applications will be accepted until midnight on Sunday 21st May 2023. The application will comprise all of the following:

A Cover Letter;

A Curriculum Vitae;

Names and contact details of two referees. References will only be taken up with approval from candidates.

Applications, by email only, should be submitted to should be addressed to ITMA Digital Archivist Adam Girard, and emailed to recruitment [at] itma.ie

For further information on the Irish Traditional Music Archive / Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann, visit the link below.