Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology
POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley
Salary based on qualifications
This is a full-time appointment available to start as soon as possible
The UC Berkeley Library is embarking on an ambitious new course to rapidly expand our digital services — and we seek a dynamic leader to manage and grow this initiative at one of the world’s most iconic teaching and research institutions. The Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology will lead the Library’s reimagined and rapidly expanding Digital Lifecycle Program (DLP), the Library IT department, and Interlibrary Services in support of the University of California, Berkeley’s world-renowned culture of research and innovation. The Library is looking for a leader with proven experience, bold ideas, and the confidence and political acumen to execute them.
Accelerating the Digital Lifecycle Program is a tremendous opportunity for the right visionary leader. With the addition of several new positions, new equipment, a new space, a new digital assets management system, and a new strategic vision, the DLP initiative is expected to advance the UC Berkeley Library to a leading position among all U.S. research libraries.
In addition to leading the Digital Lifecycle Program, the AUL will oversee the Library IT team, which provides Library-wide support and leadership for data, computing, innovative technology spaces, interface design, and infrastructure services following a user-centric, service-oriented philosophy. S/he will also oversee the Interlibrary Services unit. The AUL will lead planning for the delivery of digital information resources in a highly diverse computing environment.
Joining an intensely collaborative team of Library leaders, the AUL will help set the Library’s strategic goals, priorities, and policies, and manage their execution by staff to serve the Library’s mission and achieve its vision. The Leadership Team identifies and solves the most complex operational and strategic problems that confront the Library. The AUL will provide long-range planning and direction for the Library’s digital strategies to support the Library’s new strategic vision (see:
ucberk.li/our-plan ).
The AUL’s portfolio encompasses both traditional and new systems and services. The AUL will work closely with other Library leaders on a variety of services that include building a network of support for innovative digital scholarship, rapidly expanding digital collections, improving the findability and usability of scholarly resources, ensuring long-term preservation of digital materials, and influencing technology-rich spaces and programs such as those of the Center for Connected Learning.
The AUL has a formal relationship with the Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology (CIO) and the campus IT Leadership Group, and will participate in the campus’s collaborative IT governance structure. The AUL actively builds relationships with other research and technology partners — including those that support research data management and data science — on campus, within the California Digital Library, and across the other nine University of California campuses.
THE ENVIRONMENT
The University of California, Berkeley, is one of the world’s most iconic teaching and research institutions. Since 1868 Berkeley has fueled a perpetual renaissance, generating unparalleled intellectual, economic, and social value in California, the United States, and the world. Berkeley’s culture of openness, freedom, and acceptance — academic and artistic, political, and cultural — make it a very special place for students, faculty, and staff. Berkeley is committed to hiring and developing staff who want to work in a high-performing culture that supports the outstanding work of our faculty and students. Candidates are encouraged to read more about the UC Berkeley culture at
http://jobs.berkeley.edu/why-berkeley.html .
In a highly-diverse and intellectually-rich environment, Berkeley serves a campus community of over 30,000 undergraduate students, 11,000 graduate students, and 1,500 faculty. The Library also serves the people of California, and the world through lending to over 35 countries a year, and making available a rapidly-growing archive of digitized special collections materials (over 4 million items so far). The UC Berkeley Library has contributed over 3 million digitized books to HathiTrust.
The Library comprises 25 campus libraries, with a collection of nearly 13 million circulating volumes, almost 1.5 million e-books, and subscriptions to over 130,000 journals and periodicals. We have about 200 million items in our special collections still to be digitized and manage close to 10 million files (200 TB) in our digital holdings, including rare materials held by The Bancroft Library, the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, the Bioscience, Natural Resources & Public Health Library, the Music Library, and the Anthropology Library. The UC Berkeley Library actively partners with the other nine UC campuses and the systemwide California Digital Library. The Library manages the systemwide off-site Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF), which currently houses over 7 million items with a 3.1 million item expansion scheduled to open in 2020. The Library has a current operating budget of about $62 million with approximately 325 full-time employees and 600 student employees each year.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The AUL for Digital Initiatives will develop and lead Library initiatives that rapidly increase the digitization of the Library’s collections, enhance discovery, delivery, accessibility, and usability of resources within and beyond our collections, and, together with the AUL for Scholarly Resources, ensure preservation of our digitized collections. The AUL will partner with fellow members of the Library’s Leadership Team, Library staff, faculty, students, campus units, the California Digital Library, our sister UC campuses, and others.
Reporting to the University Librarian, the AUL will:
Lead and design support for the digital lifecycle program
The Digital Lifecycle Program is one of the Library’s key strategic initiatives and the Library is embarking upon a redesign and vast expansion of its digital program. More broadly, the AUL provides campus-wide leadership and serves as the primary spokesperson for the Library’s digital strategies and services to faculty, students, and other Library patrons. The AUL, collaboratively with the AUL for Scholarly Resources, designs, develops, and sets best practices in areas such as digitization, digital curation, digital preservation, metadata, and the design and development of discovery services. The position will represent the UC Berkeley Library in projects with the California Digital Library and other partner institutions as we explore new ways to strengthen collaborative services and co-investments of resources to support research, teaching, and learning.
It is expected that the AUL will have substantive knowledge of digital assets and the technical infrastructure required for their lifecycle management, including metadata requirements, migration strategies, best practices in digital preservation, and relevant national and international standards. The AUL must have knowledge of issues and trends related to digital scholarship, discoverability, accessibility, and usability of information resources.
Lead and design support for current and emerging digital scholarship
The AUL will provide leadership for Library services related to data and digital scholarship across disciplines. The AUL will design and develop best practices for areas and units in her/his portfolio, including IT system requirements and priorities, and set Library-wide policy and protocols related to technology support for the work of subject liaisons, metadata, access, and technology specialists, and Library support personnel.
Provide leadership for departments in collaboration with Library leadership
The AUL will supervise and lead the Digital Lifecycle Program, Library IT, and Interlibrary Services, comprising 50 FTE in a variety of academic and professional staff classifications including classifications represented by collective bargaining units. In addition, due to the highly-matrixed nature of our Library’s leadership, the AUL will also lead project teams that include staff who report to other AULs and other units. The AUL will share decision-making authority with the Library Leadership Team for personnel actions, resource management of the Library’s budget, and development of policies for all Library operations and services. In our team-led, interconnected organization, the AUL will work closely with other members of the Leadership Team on shared planning, prioritization, problem solving, and vision for supporting Library staff, faculty, students, and campus partners from a wide range of departments, disciplines, and specializations .
Minimum basic qualification at time of application:
Advanced degree (Masters or PhD or equivalent international degree) by application date
Preferred qualifications:
• Minimum of five years’ experience in academic research libraries or archives leading, supervising, and/or directing academic, professional, and technical library staff.
• Minimum of five years’ experience in positions of increasing responsibility and leadership for current and emerging information technology in academic libraries, including experience designing and/or managing library systems, digital asset management systems, discovery systems, and digitization services.
• Demonstrated capability to function as a collaborative leader and partner.
• Demonstrated strong commitment to user-centered services for all constituencies.
• Superior analytical, problem solving, interpersonal, and communication skills.
• Demonstrated project management and organizational skills, including change management skills for an adaptive learning organization.
• Demonstrated effective fiscal management.
• Substantive knowledge of digital assets and the technical infrastructure required for their lifecycle management, including metadata requirements, migration strategies, best practices in digital preservation, and relevant national and international standards.
• Demonstrated knowledge of policies, best practices, and strategies for opening access to and use of digital assets and scholarly content.
• A strong commitment to equity and inclusion in supporting a diverse workforce and serving the needs of a diverse population.
• Experience and success with fundraising and grant writing, and in managing grant-funded projects.
The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits. Associate University
Librarians are entitled to two days per month of vacation leave, and one day per month of sick leave.
The Library at the University of California, Berkeley, is committed to the support and encouragement of a multicultural environment and seeks candidates who can make positive and imaginative contributions in a context of ethnic and cultural diversity.
This associate university librarian position is covered by the UC Academic Personnel Manual (APM).
This is a designated position requiring fingerprinting and a background check due to the nature of the job responsibilities. Berkeley does hire people with conviction histories and reviews
information received in the context of the job responsibilities. The University reserves the right to make employment contingent upon successful completion of the background check.
This recruitment will remain open until filled.
Berkeley has retained Isaacson, Miller, a higher education executive search firm, to assist in this search.
Applicants should submit a resume; submittal of a cover letter is optional.
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion,
sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action
policy see:
Inquiries:
Search Firm Contact:
Isaacson, Miller, 1000 Sansome Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94111
University Library Contact: