Jim Safley

Profile

Experience in academic, non-profit, and government sectors. Knowledgeable in traditional and digital archiving theories and practices. Knowledgeable in various Internet technologies, including scripting languages and databases. Highly motivated, dependable, strong organizational and writing skills, some supervisory experience, experienced in arranging and describing physical records and digital objects.

Skills

PHP, OOP, MySQL, Linux, Apache, XHTML, CSS, XML, SFTP/SSH, Dreamweaver MX, MS Office Suite, Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), Dublin Core, digital conversion/migration software.

Experience

Independent Consultant
Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area; 2005 to present

• Consultation in web development and database administration, particularly in humanities related projects.
• Consultation in the digitization of text and images, including best practices, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and metadata mark-up.
• Consultation in the organization and preservation of records -- physical and digital -- throughout their lifecycle.

Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
Fairfax, VA; 2002 to present
Web Programmer & Digital Archivist

• Designed and developed database-driven web pages for the ECHO project, September 11 Digital Archive, Library of Congress, National Museum of American History, Critical Infrastructure Protection Program, National Museum of American Jewish History, American Red Cross, National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• Created an asset management system, titled Adaptable Digital Archive Manager (ADAM), designed specifically to provide scholars an adaptable framework to accommodate their digital collections.
• Assisted in the restructuring of the Center's databases to bring them into conformance with digital organizational and preservation models. Also assisted in the standardization of the Center's development environment, including work plans and coding standards.
• Assisted in the development of database procedures for the accession, ingestion, and preservation of hundreds of digital collections and thousands of digital objects. Also designed metadata standards and object ingest protocols.
• Assisted in the preparation of the September 11 Digital Archive for accession into the Library of Congress. The Archive has the distinction of being the first major digital acquisition in the Library of Congress.
• Researched various national and international digital archive and library initiatives, including OAIS, NDIIPP, ERA, InterPARES, PREMIS, DSpace, and Fedora, and applied their concepts to the Center's work. Also researched digitization and digital preservation standards and practices for the book, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web ( University of Pittsburg Press, 2005).
• Performed rights and access management duties, including requests for permission, copyright, authentication, and consent protocol.
• Trained and supervised several research assistants and interns.

Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society
Washington, DC; 2001 to 2002
National Headquarters Records Manager (Intern)

• Organized in-house files and records into a cohesive and systematic whole, established an efficient means to retrieve records, answered reference requests in a timely manner, and performed related duties (including permanent storage and record preservation/destruction).
• Devised a formal catalog of files/records for use by Phi Beta Kappa staff.
• Prepared Phi Beta Kappa records for accession into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division (the official repository of Phi Beta Kappa archives), and directed the move of those records to the Library of Congress.
• Composed technical papers and procedural reports for use by Phi Beta Kappa staff and future archivists.
• Advised in the archival/architectural layout for new business facilities, and recommended the purchase of appropriate filing cabinets and bookcases.
• Coordinated the move of Phi Beta Kappa records to new business facilities.
• Supervised one intern.

Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University
Fairfax, VA; 2001 to 2002
Student Assistant Archivist

• Worked on the Virginia Heritage Project, a statewide project commissioned by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to provide Virginia-related archival collections to the online community.
• Wrote Encoded Archival Description (EAD), a Library of Congress endorsed standard for encoding archival finding aids using the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which provides online researchers with searchable reference tools.
• Arranged, described, and processed collections, developed finding aids and research guides, and composed front matter.
• Instructed EAD coding to student assistants, and composed procedural reports for use by Special Collections & Archives staff.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Washington, DC; summer 2000
Center for Legislative Archives Intern

• Processed the Center's collection of original documents, assisted in the maintenance of several projects simultaneously, responded to researcher requests, provided historical research of congressional, national, and international events, and composed research papers on a limited timeframe.
• Assigned to projects solicited by the Republican National Convention, Tudor Place (Washington , DC), and the White House Historical Association that required the evaluation of resources and composition of explanatory texts.
• Monitored the work of three other interns for the archivist.

Northern Virginia Community College Libraries
Woodbridge, VA; 1995 to 1996
Student Volunteer

• Responsible for book inquiry, title orders, cataloging, and bar-coding.

Education

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
Graduate Studies in History
2002 to present

GPA: 3.84; Earned hours: 12

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
History Major, Classical Studies Minor
1999 to 2002
Cumulative GPA: 3.57; History Major GPA: 3.752
Honors: Graduated With Distinction, Dean's List

Northern Virginia Community College
Woodbridge, VA
1995 to 1999

Awards and Memberships

• Member of Phi Alpha Theta National Honor Society in History.
• Associate Member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA).
• George Mason University History Department Winslow R. Hatch Award, 2003.
• Phi Alpha Theta, National Nels Andrew Cleven Founder's Paper Prize Award 2002.
• Member of Golden Key International Honor Society.
• Woodbridge Festival of the Arts, Second Place for Essay, 1999.

Papers and Presentations

• "Digitization of Text and Images: A Rough Overview of Best Practices", Doing Digital History Workshop, sponsored by the Center for History and New Media, June 2005, October 2005.
• "Digital History at the Center for History and New Media", The Library in Bits and Bytes, Poster Session: University of Maryland University Libraries, September 2005.

Conferences, Symposiums, and Workshops

• Digital Preservation Partners Meeting, Conference: National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), Library of Congress, July 2005.
• The Library in Bits and Bytes, Symposium: University of Maryland University Libraries, September 2005.
• Introduction to XML and the Text Encoding Initiative, Workshop: University of Maryland University Libraries, September 2005.