Art Cataloger | Austin, TX

Art Cataloger, Visual Materials 2025 Job Posting 

General Notes 

About the Harry Ransom Center: 

The Ransom Center is an internationally renowned humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. Its extensive collections provide unique insight into the creative process of writers and artists, deepening our understanding and appreciation of literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts. Visitors engage with the Center's collections through research and study, exhibitions, publications, and a rich variety of program offerings including readings, talks, symposia, and film screenings. 

The Ransom Center’s art holdings, ranging from fifteenth-century prints to contemporary artworks, are a rich resource for advancing insight into the creative process. Among the collection’s strengths are extensive holdings of artists’ books; archives and visual materials related to publication history, book art, and book design; and materials important to the history of typography and fine presses. The large collection of original illustrations includes drawings and prints by Eric Gill, Miguel Covarrubias, John Biggers, and Arthur Rackham. European and Latin American modernists—among them Odilon Redon, Jean Cocteau, Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera—and satirists such as George Cruikshank, Max Beerbohm, and José Posada are also well represented. The Center’s contemporary artworks on paper include works by Robert Rauschenberg, James Turrell, Elizabeth Catlett, Jasper Johns, and Betye Saar. Archival strengths include works and papers of Nancy Cunard, Charles Henri Ford, Pavel Tchelitchew, Ed Ruscha, Elizabeth Olds, and Anita and Leah Brenner. 

The Ransom Center encourages discovery, inspires creativity, and advances understanding of the humanities for a broad and varied audience through the preservation and sharing of its extraordinary collections. To learn more about our institutional mission and values, visit: https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/about/#mission-values.  

Purpose 

This is a grant-funded, temporary, full-time, four-year position without the possibility of renewal. The Art Cataloger will report to the Manager for Visual Materials Cataloging and identify, document, describe, and rehouse materials from the Center’s Art Collection that have been identified as cataloging priorities by the Curator of Art. Although primarily consisting of works on paper, such as prints and drawings, materials may also include a limited number of paintings and textiles. 

The Art Cataloger will create and update consistent and accurate item-level catalog records in the Center’s collection management system in accordance with internal procedures and current standards of archival and museum theory and practice. 

The Art Cataloger will provide routine housing for Art Collection materials as needed, working with guidance from the Center’s Preservation & Conservation staff, to ensure the long-term preservation and security of the materials. 

The Art Cataloger will engage in related Metadata & Discovery functions as assigned. 

Responsibilities 

• Through object examination and research, identifies, documents, and describes Art Collection materials, and creates consistent and accurate item-level catalog records in the Center’s collection management system according to national and local standards. 

• Updates legacy item-level records to bring the level of cataloging up to current standards. Assists with creating metadata for digitized images. 

• Consults with: Curator of Art regarding historical and provenance-related information relevant to the artworks; Conservation staff to ensure accurate identification of processes and materials; and Preservation staff on proper housing of materials. Performs minor or routine preservation housing tasks. 

• May supervise student workers, paraprofessional staff, or volunteers, including providing instruction for and evaluation of activities. 

• Engages in related Metadata & Discovery functions as assigned that may include serving on internal committees, and engaging in campus, regional, and national scholarly and professional organizations and activities. 
  
  

Required Qualifications 

• A Master’s degree in Art History, Museum Studies with two years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited program with two years of relevant experience 

• Demonstrated ability to identify artistic media and art processes. 

• Experience describing artworks at the object- and group-level, and knowledge of descriptive standards and controlled vocabularies. 

• Demonstrated knowledge of preservation standards for and handling of art materials. 

• Demonstrated ability to work efficiently and meticulously, balance multiple responsibilities, and adjust accordingly to changing priorities, needs, and deadlines. 

• Excellent oral and written communication to effectively work with curators, conservators, preservation technicians, digitization technicians, and other librarians and archivists. 
  
  

Preferred Qualifications 

• Two or more years of experience describing and cataloging artworks in a museum or research library setting. 

• Substantial coursework in art history and demonstrated research experience. 

• Knowledge of standard reference tools and research methods in art history. 

• Coursework in cataloging. 

• Knowledge of name authority records and their functions in a collection management system. 

• Experience in use of metadata management and editing tools, such as Open Refine, and mass metadata remediation. 
  
  

Salary 

• $55,000 non-negotiable 
  
  

Working Conditions 

• Standard office conditions. 

• Repetitive use of a keyboard and standard office equipment at a workstation. 
  
  

Work Shift 

• Full-time 40hrs/week, M-F 8am-5pm 
  
  

Required Materials 

• Resume/CV 

• Letter of interest 

• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor 

For all details and to apply, please view the full job posting at this link: https://utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UTstaff/job/UT-MAIN-CAMPUS/Art-Cataloger--The-Harry-Ransom-Center_R_00040260