Conservation & Preservation Assistant

Johns Hopkins University is hiring two Conservation & Preservation Assistants for a 35-week project at the Garrett Library in Baltimore, MD. Responsibilities include cleaning and assessing books, recording information, and organizing shelves. Candidates should have good communication skills, attention to detail, and some related experience. The role offers valuable experience in conservation and collections care, with a full-time schedule from Monday to Friday.
Important: We anticipate this project will last approximately 35 weeks.

The John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen constitutes one of the most extensive private rare book and manuscript collections formed in America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that is still preserved in its original home. The library collection was primarily assembled over the course of two generations by T. Harrison Garrett and then by his son, John Work Garrett, and comprises approximately 30,000 bound volumes and 1,400 unbound materials, including, but not limited to, roughly 500 broadsides, 500 architectural drawings and sketches, 275 letters and autographs and 75 early newspapers. The main library space was itself designed by Baltimore society architect Laurence Hall Fowler, whose own collection of Renaissance to 19th-century architectural books occupies a large corner of the library. The collection ranges in age from the medieval period to the 19th Century. The Museum sits on 26 acres in North Baltimore, and has been a part of the Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries and University Museums since the 1950’s.

We are seeking two (2) Conservation & Preservation Assistants who, under the supervision of Department of Conservation and Preservation staff, will undertake the cleaning of books in the Garrett Library at the Evergreen Museum and Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Assistants will leave the project with solid work experience in conservation and collections care, and we encourage applications from those seeking to enter conservation or related cultural heritage fields.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities
• Assistants will remove books from the shelf, record basic descriptive information, and assess the condition and future preservation needs of each book, clean the exteriors, and replace books on cleaned shelves in call number order.

Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work with different database software.
• Attention to detail.
• Ability to work both in a team and independently.
• Willingness to adapt to change if needed during the survey.

Minimum Qualifications
• High School Diploma or graduation equivalent.
• One-year related experience.
• Additional education may substitute for experience to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications
• Previous work experience (paid or volunteer) in a museum or library setting.
• Previous work experience (paid or volunteer) in a conservation or collections care setting.
• Demonstrated commitment to applying to graduate programs in conservation.

Classified Title: Library Assistant

Job Posting Title (Working Title): Conservation & Preservation Assistant

Role/Level/Range: ATO 37.5/01/OC

Starting Salary Range: $15.70 - $20.50 - $25.25 HRLY (Commensurate w/exp.)

Employee group: Full Time

Schedule: M-F, 8:30am-5pm

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Location: Homewood Campus

Department name: ​​​​​​​Conservation & Preservation

Personnel area: Libraries