The Archivist
Archivists ultimately work for people who will discover these recordings years from now.
Good archives prioritize provenance, context, and future discoverability.
This role is a good fit for people who enjoy organizing messy information and making sure important things don’t disappear. The Archivist helps keep the Zk Av Club archive consistent, searchable, and usable across platforms like Internet Archive and our public metadata repository.
What you do
-
Turn messy recording folders into real archive items: source files, credits, consent notes (who approved what, and any boundaries), context, and a clean handoff.
-
Decide what details actually matter for each item type: keep templates simple and evolve the metadata schema as the archive grows.
-
Work with other coordinators to pull the pieces together (audio/video from the post-production coordinator, text from the Storyteller, and any missing pieces).
-
Keep the “source of truth” file up to date as the item evolves (links, versions, consent status, credits, notes).
-
Publish original files to the public archive (Internet Archive today, or whatever host makes sense as the archive evolves), with the details needed to make them usable later. (See Recording Station licensing + consent.)
-
Keep simple inventories so nothing disappears: what exists, where it lives, what’s missing, what needs follow-up.
Success means someone discovers the recording years later and can immediately understand what it is and use it.
You’re a fit if you
-
You like detail-heavy care work: organizing, labeling, checking, and following up.
-
You can triage and keep a queue moving (even with messy inputs).
-
You can make judgment calls and improve templates over time.
-
You write clearly and treat credits, consent, and context as real obligations.
Tools we like (not required)
Text-first workflows (docs/markdown), spreadsheets, simple publishing/index workflows, and comfort working from transcripts.
Interested in this role?
Applications start with a short form. If there’s a potential fit, we’ll follow up with a small trial task so we can see how you approach real archive material.
The application takes about 10–15 minutes.
If this sounds like your kind of work, we’d love to hear from you.
→ Apply for the Archivist role
See also: Storyteller Wanted: Decode Open-Source Media
Note: This is one of the jobs that is being created thanks to Zcash Community Grants (@ZCG) as part of Zcash Community Media Infrastructure & Support | Zk Av Club 2026.
Zk Av Club — Don’t just watch.
