Hillel Arnold

New York, NY – hillel@hillelarnold.com – hillelarnold.com

Education

Master of Arts in History (concentration in Archival Management), New York University, New York, NY, 2009
Masters of Science in Library and Information Science, Palmer School of Long Island University, New York, NY, 2009
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature (concentration in Post Colonial Literature), Hunter College, 2005

Employment

Associate Director of Archives & Chief Digital Strategies Officer (July 2023 - present) - Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY

Assists in the planning and directing of the programs and activities of the Rockefeller Archive Center’s Archives Program, including the development and planning of short and long-range program goals and strategies consistent with the overall mission of the RAC.
In coordination with the Director of Archives, ensures the efficient operation of the Archives Program through effective leadership of and collaboration with supervisors, program managers, and staff members.
In collaboration with stakeholders across the organization, create and maintain a holistic digital strategy for the organization which promotes empowerment and constant learning.
Build, lead and support an integrated team responsible for providing technical expertise and leadership to the entire organization.
Facilitate the development of core skills across the organization including project management, facilitation process analysis, usability and accessibilty.
Convene and lead sector-level collaboration between archives and philanthropic organizations in support of the RAC’s efforts to become an organizational home for technology used in archives of philanthropic organizations.
Provide formal and informal consultation, coaching, and mentoring to colleagues in other archives or philanthropy tech.

Assistant Director for Digital Strategies (January 2016-June 2023) - Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY

Promote learning across the organization, particularly in areas of technology
Collaborate closely with the Director of Archives and members of the Archives Management team to iteratively improve efficiency and the user experience of archival processes.
In collaboration with the Director of Archives and members of the Archives Management Team, lead strategic implementation and/or decommissioning of systems to support archival processes.
Facilitate strategic adoption of and compliance with archival standards.
Contribute to and encourage RAC participation in open source communities and the archival profession with code, policy development, professional service and publication in professional venues.
Maintain awareness and develop in-depth knowledge of new technology, relevant national standards and best practices through professional meetings, conferences, workshops, and other educational and networking opportunities; assesses and integrates new developments into the digital program.
Conduct comprehensive review of structures, processes, documents and culture to evaluate organizational support for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Digital Archivist (June 2012-December 2016) - Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY

Implement, develop and maintain a variety of user-centered technical solutions to increase discoverability of and access to archival materials.
Identify use cases, develop functional requirements, implement and customize systems to match those use cases and requirements.
Evaluate and improve systems with ongoing testing including established metrics and in-person usability testing.

Project Archivist (September 2009-June 2012) - Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, New York, NY

Arrange and describe the Daily Worker/Daily World Photographs Collection.
Respond to reference requests, including on-demand digitization.
Serve on Special Collections EAD Stylesheet subcommittee.
Co-found and contribute to The Back Table, a blog for NYU’s Special Collections.
Develop policy and documentation for repository’s descriptive practices and implementation of the Archivists’ Toolkit.

Digital Projects Manager (October 2007-July 2009) - Foundation for Landscape Studies, New York, NY

Develop and implement digital library of cultural landscape images to be served via a variety of media, in collaboration with the Society of Architectural Historians and ARTstor.
Create metadata using VRA Core 4.0 schema and Getty Vocabularies (AAT, TGN, ULAN).

Graduate Assistant (May 2007 – July 2009) - Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive, New York, NY

Survey, accession, process and create DACS-compliant finding aids for collections using the Archivists’ Toolkit.
Facilitate repository’s implementation of the Archivists’ Toolkit, including data ingest and cleanup.
Develop procedures and documentation for EAD encoding.
Survey Asian- and Pacific-American collections in the New York metropolitan area (METRO grant-funded project in collaboration with the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU).

Archives Assistant (October 2005 – August 2007) - Woody Guthrie Archives, New York, NY

Accession and describe additions to collection.
Process rights requests for print, audio, and video materials.
Provide reference support for internal and external research by email, phone and in person.
Develop public programs (Global Woody: Language, Culture, History and Harmony) and exhibits (Note of Hope, Cartoon Limbo).
Supervise interns on specialized projects including as collection processing and database creation.

Additional Training

Implementing DACS in an Integrated CMS: Using the Archivists’ Toolkit, Society of American Archivists, January 2009.
Internship, Digital Experience Group, New York Public Library, January-May 2009.

Skills

Natural Languages: Spoken and written English; reading knowledge of Spanish and German; familiarity with Urdu.
Programming Languages: Ruby, Python, PHP, SQL, Unix shell scripts.
Applications: Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Archivists’ Toolkit, ArchivesSpace.
Web Frameworks/Content Management Systems: Rails, Django, AngularJS, Bootstrap.
Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows.
Database Systems: MySQL, MongoDB, Access.
Web/Markup Languages: Schema.org, XML, XSLT, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, PHP.
Archival/Library Metadata Standards: DACS, EAD, Dublin Core, MODS, METS, TEI.
Classification Standards and Thesauri: LCSH, LCNAF/NACO, LC Classification, AAT, VRA 4.0 Core.
System Administration: Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL.

Papers and Presentations

Creating a User Interface for Authoring PREMIS Rights, (presenter) International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES), September 2023
Searching for the Commons: Reflecting on Access Realities Surfaced through User Research, (panelist) Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, July 2023.
One Step at a Time: Shrinking Our Carbon Footprint, (co-presenter) Society of American Archivists Research Forum, July 2023.
Including and Unleashing Everyone: Using Liberating Structures for Strategic Conversations in Archives, (co-facilitator) Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2022.
Including and Unleashing Everyone: Facilitation with Liberating Structures, (co-facilitator) Code4Lib Conference, May 2022.
Developing a Community-Based Strategic Agenda to Transform Archival Discovery and Delivery, (panelist) Coalition for Networked Information, December 2019.
Records in Motion: an open, standards-based approach to digital records transfers, (poster, with Hannah Sistrunk) Society of American Archivists Research Forum, August 2018.
Archival Values, (speaker) Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2018.
Learning in Motion: Collaborating Across Organizations to Manage, Preserve & Use Digital Records, (panelist) Technology Affinity Group, November 2017.
For Good Measure: The Role of Regulatory Records in Environmental Maintenance, (speaker, with Eira Tansey) Society for the History of Technology, October 2017.
“What’s Wrong and How to Fix It”: Woody Guthrie and the Maintenance of Folk Music, (speaker) Maintainers II, April 2017.
Archives as Sites of Resistance, Liberation and Creativity, (speaker) The Word is Action: Engaging the Bible and Social Justice in memory of Walter Wink, October 2016.
Critical Work: Archivists as Maintainers, (speaker) Society of American Archivists Research Forum, August 2016.
Foundation Archives: How Changes to the Way We Work is Sparking Innovation in the Way We Record Our History, (panelist) Philanthropy New York, March 2016.
staticAid: a static site generator for archival description, (speaker) Code4Lib Conference, March 2016.
From Transfer to Access: Digital Records at the Rockefeller Archive Center, (speaker) Consortium of Foundation Libraries, Council on Foundations, July 2015.
Making EAD Make Sense, (speaker) New York Archives Conference, June 2015.
Arrangement and Description for Born-Digital Materials, (speaker, with Bonnie Gordon) CURATEcamp, April 2015.
Better Search Through Listening, (speaker) edUI Conference, October 2014.
Highways, Wires and Tubes: Regulation, Power and Communication Networks, (speaker) Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2014.
Testing Early, Testing Often, (speaker, with Sibyl Schaefer) Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, May 2013.
The Burning of Paper Instead of Children, (speaker) Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2012.
The Daily Worker and Daily World Photographs Collection, (speaker) Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, 2011.
It’s a Small World After All: The Daily Worker and Daily World Photographs Collection, (speaker) New York Archives Conference, June 2010.
Documenting the Asian/Pacific American Community, (speaker) Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, 2009.
Audio Collections at the Woody Guthrie Archives, (speaker) Association of Recorded Sound Collections, New York Chapter, 2009.
Documenting the Asian/Pacific American Community, (speaker) Metropolitan New York Library Council, 2009.
Working with Living Archives: Challenges and Opportunities in a Survey of Asian/Pacific American Collections in the New York Metropolitan Area, (poster) Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 2009.
Too Much Information: Archival Description of Radical History Collections, (speaker) National Council on Public History, April 2009.
Working with Living Archives: Challenges and Opportunities in a Survey of Asian/Pacific American Collections in the New York Metropolitan Area, (poster) National Council on Public History, April 2009.

Publications

“Practicing Care: Constructing Social Responsibility through Feminist Care Ethics” in Archival Values: Essays in Honor of Mark A. Greene, Society of American Archivists, 2019. preprint
Information Maintenance as a Practice of Care (co-author). permalink
The Future of Email Archives (contributor), Council on Library and Information Resources, August 2018. permalink
Research Agenda: Valuing Labor in Digital Libraries (contributor), DLF Working Group on Labor in Digital Libraries, August 2018. permalink
“Implementing Schema.org at Rockefeller Archive Center” (case study) in Putting Descriptive Standards to Work (eds. Kris Kiesling and Chris Prom), Society of American Archivists, 2017. permalink
Shared inquiry in the archives (with Laura Miller), National Council on Public History, History@Work Blog. 26 July 2016. permalink
The First Publishing Experience (Or, Using Graduate School Work for a Higher Purpose) (contribution), SAA SNAP Roundtable Blog. 17 December 2015. permalink
My Name Is New York: Ramblin’ around Woody Guthrie’s Town, PowerHouse Books, 2012.
A Sign of Contradiction: The Record Keeping Practices of the New York City Catholic Worker, American Catholic Review 121:2 (Summer 2010). permalink

Teaching

Introduction to DACS, (instructor) Society of American Archivists, 2013-2016
Advanced Archival Description (adjunct professor) New York University, 2015-2018

Memberships and Professional Service

Society of American Archivists

Member, 2007-Present.
Member and Instructor, Technical Subcommittee on DACS, September 2010-August 2016. Co-Chair, August 2015-August 2016
Administrator, EAD Help Pages Bibliography, December 2010-August 2013.
Co-Chair, EAD Roundtable, August 2011-August 2013.
Member (ex officio), Technical Subcommittee on EAD, August 2011-August 2013.

Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York

Member, 2008-Present.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference

Member, 2009-Present.

Archipelago Advisory Board

Member, 2019-Present.

Awards

DLF Forum Fellowships for Librarians New to the Profession, Digital Library Federation, Spring 2009