Organization
American University of Cairo
Address
This is a remote position.
Supervising Librarian/Archivist
Name: Elizabeth Day
Email: elizabeth.day@aucegypt.edu
Purpose of the project:
The graduate student will help to establish a social media archiving program to preserve the organization’s digital presence and ensure compliance with recordkeeping requirements. The graduate student will research best practices, evaluate archiving tools and methods, and implement systems to systematically collect and preserve social media records. This position provides advanced experience in digital preservation, emerging records formats, and the intersection of social media, compliance, and information governance.
Summary of activities required to carry out the project:
The graduate student will inventory the organization’s social media presence across all platforms, documenting account ownership, content types, and preservation gaps. Core activities include evaluating social media archiving tools (ArchiveSocial, Smarsh, PageFreezer, open-source alternatives), comparing features and costs, and developing criteria for content capture based on official communications, public engagement, and business value.
The graduate student will design workflows for ongoing social media capture, including automated collection schedules, manual procedures for temporary content, and quality assurance processes. They will create metadata schemas ensuring archived content is searchable with post dates, authors, engagement metrics, and edit history.
Additional responsibilities include conducting pilot archiving projects, developing staff guidelines on recordkeeping responsibilities, creating access procedures balancing preservation with privacy and platform terms, and preparing recommendations for long-term preservation strategies and program sustainability.
Expectations of the end result of the project, for both host and student:
For the Host Organization:
The organization will receive an operational social media archiving framework including documented procedures for capturing content across all active platforms, implemented archiving tools or systems with initial content collections established, content retention decisions, and access protocols. Deliverables include a social media inventory and gap analysis, evaluation report comparing archiving solutions with implementation recommendations, pilot archive collections demonstrating the system in action, and training materials for relevant staff.
For the Student:
The graduate student will gain specialized expertise in digital preservation and emerging records formats, positioning them as a subject matter expert in an area of growing importance across all sectors. They will develop advanced technical skills in evaluating and implementing archiving technologies, understanding of complex legal and ethical issues surrounding social media preservation including copyright, privacy, and platform policies, and experience managing a substantial project from research through implementation.
Time periods in which the project could be supervised:
- Winter Term 1 (September – December)
- Winter Term 2 (January – April)
- Summer Term 1 (May – June)
- Summer Term 2 (July – August)
Is there a deadline by which the project must be completed?
No deadline.
Considering the project requirements, please suggest suitable coursework as pre-requisite or co-requisite:
Completion of MAS Core.
Application deadline: applications will be assessed on a rolling basis.