All,

A few weeks back, Peter Brantley posted a description on behalf of my 
colleague Mairead Martin.  That was for a Digital Library Architect, 
reporting into the Digital Library Technologies group.  This position is 
an important complement to that role, and it reports into the Scholarly 
Communications group.

[The usual apologies for cross posting.]

Digital Collections Curator
The Pennsylvania State University Libraries

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries seeks a Digital Collections 
Curator to play a key role in the further development of our electronic 
content stewardship and publishing programs.   These programs will be 
developed through a strategic and dynamic partnership between the Penn 
State Libraries and Information Technology Services (ITS).   The Digital 
Collections Curator will lead the Libraries’ efforts to develop and plan 
user focused services that enable the effective creation, sharing, 
discovery, and use of digital content in support of research, teaching 
and learning.  The Digital Collections Curator collaborates extensively 
with colleagues throughout the Libraries and ITS to achieve his or her 
objectives.   The Curator will report to the Assistant Dean for 
Scholarly Communications who also oversees Digitization and 
Preservation, Scholarly Communications Services, and the Office of 
Digital Scholarly Publishing.  This is a tenure track appointment.

Responsibilities will include:

     * Lead development of an inclusive, user-focused agenda for digital 
scholarly content stewardship.
     * Investigate, recommend, and develop plans for user-focused and 
repository- based services to effectively manage the sustainable 
creation, collection and distribution of high-value digital scholarly 
content.
     * Manage a broad set of existing digital collections and repository 
content, including:  reformatted materials (images, books, newspapers, 
manuscripts, etc), publication related content (journals, conference 
proceedings, monographs, hybrid formats, post & pre-prints, working 
papers, etc),  as well as the potential and emerging needs for data 
collections in a wide array of disciplines.
     * Research and develop in-depth knowledge of new and emerging 
technologies, relevant national standards, and best practices, in order 
to assess and promote their integration into local operations as 
appropriate.
     * Serve on standing working groups and committees related to web 
functionality and digital content creation and management.
     * Communicate effectively with internal stakeholders in the areas 
of collections & public services, technical services, information 
technologies, and scholarly communications.
     * Promote and report on Penn State’s activities through conference 
and workshop presentations, written publications.
     * Represent Penn State in relevant professional contexts and engage 
with national and consortial peers to identify and/or carry out mutually 
beneficial partnerships.

Requirements:

     * Master’s degree in library and/or information science, or 
advanced degree in relevant academic field.
     * Should have 3 years work related to the creation, management, and 
provision of electronic data resources in a higher education environment.
     * Should demonstrate strong organizational and/or process 
management abilities.
     * Should demonstrate familiarity with developing trends in higher 
education information management, including, but not limited to: 
Cyberinfrastructure development, data curation and preservation, 
electronic publishing, digital scholarship and non-traditional scholarly 
communications.
     * Ability to lead and work collaboratively in an evolving and 
decentralized environment.
     * Commitment to user focused design, development, and service 
provision.
     * Communication skills that will support work with both technology 
experts and novices.
     * Facility with common standards and practices in contemporary 
digital library management.   Experience with XSLT, Perl or other 
scripting languages, and/or experience with major repository platforms 
is desirable.

Environment:

As an outcome of joint strategic planning, the Penn State Libraries and 
Information Technology Services (ITS) are collaborating in the 
development of this Content Stewardship program to meet extant and 
emerging digital content and asset management needs in areas such as 
digital library collections, scholarly communications, electronic record 
archiving, and e-science/e-research.  Building on existing services and 
infrastructure, this program will put in place a cohesive and extensible 
suite of data access, management, and preservation services that will 
support the creation and distribution of digital scholarship. 
Additionally, the Penn State Press and the Libraries jointly operate the 
Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing to explore and incubate 
publishing services that support the Penn State community.

Penn State, a land-grant institution, is a member of the CIC (Big 10) 
academic consortium. The Penn State University Libraries currently rank 
8th in North America among private and public research universities, 
based on Association for Research Libraries Investment Index.  The 
Libraries hold membership in ARL, OCLC, CRL and the Digital Library 
Federation. Collections exceed 6.5 million volumes, including more than 
68,000 current serial subscriptions.

The University Libraries are located at University Park and 23 other 
campuses throughout Pennsylvania, with approximately 6,000 faculty and 
42,000 students at University Park, and more than 82,000 students system 
wide. The University Park campus is set in the State College 
metropolitan area, a university town located in the heart of central 
Pennsylvania. State College offers a vibrant community with outstanding 
recreational facilities, a low crime rate, and excellent public schools. 
The campus is within a half-day drive to Washington, DC, Baltimore, 
Philadelphia, New York City and Pittsburgh. For more information, please 
visit http://www.libraries.psu.edu and http://www.cbicc.org/

Application Instructions:

Send a letter of application, resume, and the names and contact 
information of three references to Search Committee, The Pennsylvania 
State University, Box DCC-PSUA, 511 Paterno Library, University Park, PA 
16802, via email to [log in to unmask], or fax to 814-863-5592. 
  Review of applications will begin March 2, 2009 and continue until the 
position is filled.

Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and 
the diversity of its workforce.
-- 

Mike Furlough
Assistant Dean for Scholarly Communications and
Co-Director, Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing

Penn State University Libraries
University Park, PA 16802
814-863-5447