[MNASIS-L] Position Opening - Director of Digital Collections

[Janet M. Arth]

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: University 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.
http://www.ohr.umn.edu/1617/job_details.cfm?id=7363