How To Become A Digital Archivist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a digital archivist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Digital Archivists are those with an education in history or a related field who work closely with historical documents and materials, ensuring they are correctly stored. They are an essential part of any historical site, including museums, and work alongside other professionals in the field to maintain crucial historical information.

The environment for this role can vary depending on where you work. Digital Archivists who work for large corporations may find themselves traveling a lot as part of the job so that they can assess and manage materials across a range of sites. However, working for a small organization may mean that you don't need to travel regularly as part of the job.

If your institution is open during evenings and weekends, you might find yourself working during these hours as well; however, those who work as archivists in government agencies generally work regular business hours.

ScoreDigital ArchivistUS Average

Salary

4.0

Avg. Salary $50,746

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.2

Growth Rate 12%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.21%

Asian 5.01%

Black or African American 5.19%

Hispanic or Latino 7.18%

Unknown 4.18%

White 77.22%

Gender

female 49.23%

male 50.77%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.2

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

10.0

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Newest jobs for Digital Archivist in Franklin, IN

Receive alerts for the newest job postings.

Key steps to become a digital archivist

Explore digital archivist education requirements

Most common digital archivist degrees

Bachelor's

65.6 %

Master's

22.2 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific digital archivist skills

Skills	Percentages
Metadata	21.72%
Digital Preservation	14.59%
Digital Materials	13.51%
Digital Assets	7.52%
Online Database	5.59%

Complete relevant digital archivist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New digital archivists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a digital archivist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real digital archivist resumes.

Research digital archivist duties and responsibilities

Provide archiving support to international team of boutique design firm, digitizing a high volume of fashion publications.
Establish systems and process protocol for cataloging and archiving future digital material additions.
Create and coordinate a research and cataloging system for digital media archival and written communication.
Create correspondences/completed FDA forms/maintain submission calendars/review submission documents.

Prepare your digital archivist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your digital archivist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a digital archivist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Digital Archivist Resume templates

Build a professional Digital Archivist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Digital Archivist resume.

Apply for digital archivist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a digital archivist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams