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University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) - University Libraries
Director
Digital Collections
The University of Minnesota Libraries seeks a Director of Digital Collections eager to provide innovative and expert leadership. We seek a librarian who knows best practices in digital content management, is an excellent communicator, and is skilled at collaboration and building partnerships.
CONTEXT: The Digital Collections unit (DCU) fosters the creation of and access to research and scholarly material in digital form from across the University of Minnesota, both born digital objects and physical objects captured in digital form. The DCU supports in-house and externally contracted digitization services (including fee-based services), providing the best quality and most sustainable digital objects or surrogates possible at a reasonable cost. The DCU, in collaboration with subject specialists and archivists, provides expertise and services to departments, labs, and centers of the University, supporting the creation, collection, archiving, and dissemination of digital content. To ensure high quality access to the digital objects, the DCU develops comprehensive metadata standards for digital assets and shares these with the campus through documentation, training, and collaborative project planning. The DCU monitors and participates in national and international initiatives to ensure that local practice is compatible with emerging standards in the larger digital collections community.
Digital Collections is a unit within the Information Technology (IT) division of the University Libraries. The IT division includes a digital development lab which provides programming and architectural support for digital library initiatives, a team which manages the enterprise systems of the Libraries, and a group responsible for our desktop and server infrastructure and basic technology skills development.
As a member of the Digital Library Federation, a recipient of IMLS funds, and a strong participant in the Minnesota Digital Library Coalition, the University of Minnesota Libraries builds tools and collections that serve as statewide, national, and international models and interact effectively with other digital collections of interest to the University community.
POSITION DESCRIPTION: The Director of the Digital Collections will report to the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology. The Director also sits on the Information Technology Council and the Collections Council of the University Libraries.
Planning and Development. The Director manages the budget of the DCU, develops projects for the unit, and seeks external funding sources to continue the innovative work of the unit; works with the other IT managers to integrate DCU efforts with the digital library architecture of the University; and works closely with the Digital Library Development Lab to develop appropriate systems and tools for collection access, management, and preservation.
Campus Partnership & Services. The Director works closely with departments, labs, and centers across the University identifying, transforming, storing, and sharing digital works; identifies assets in need of DCU services, develops relationships with those responsible for managing such assets, shares expertise in archiving and metadata with the campus, and builds strong working relationships; and seeks opportunities for statewide, national, and international partnerships.
Collaboration. The Director collaborates with other library units to ensure that the full range of library expertise and resources are applied to building and managing digital collections.
Research & Sharing. The Director participates in larger digital library community by actively exploring questions related to digital repositories, and works to share that knowledge through regular presentations, publications.
Operations Management. The Director supervises a staff of two, hiring other student assistant staff as the need arises. The staff is skilled in digitizing objects and managing the business of the DCU including orders and invoicing. The Director takes part in workflow design and development along with other DCU staff. The actual shape of this role will depend on the incumbent's skills and DCU's needs, and may take the form of programming, collection processing, system design, or related roles.
QUALIFICATIONS: Required: An ALA-accredited masters degree in Library or Information Science, or the equivalent combination of advanced degree and relevant experience; at least three years of growing responsibility and accomplishment in digitization or digital repository development; demonstrated understanding of emerging standards in digital library systems and their application to digital repositories in academic settings; demonstrated involvement in the profession; familiarity with best practices for digitization, for metadata development and capture, and for archival storage of digital objects; ability to work in a complex organization, build and nurture a cross functional team, and collaborate with wide variety of partners; ability to liaison well with faculty; excellent written and verbal communication skills; evidence of planning and project management skill. Preferred: Knowledge of and success with external funding sources; experience partnering with diverse coalitions, experience in academic and/or research library environments; experience with the creation and capture of a wide variety of digital formats; experience with design and development of digital library architecture and tools; financial management experience.
SALARY AND BENEFITS: The University Libraries offer a competitive salary commensurate with skills and experience. Excellent benefits. This is a full-time, 12-month, continuous appointment track, academic professional position with initial appointment at the assistant or associate librarian rank. Rank will depend on qualifications and experience consistent with collegiate and university policy.
TO APPLY: Position is available immediately. Send letter of application, resume, and names and contact information of three current professional references to: Libraries Human Resources, 499 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, 309 19th Ave. So., Minneapolis, MN 55455. Please identify the application with UL171.
The University of Minnesota is an Equal Opportunity Educator and Employer.