Berkeley - University of California - Director of The Bancroft Library and Associate University Librarian for Special Collections

 https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF02859/

Salary

Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications

Close Date

Next review date: Friday, Apr 30, 2021 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Monday, May 31, 2021 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The University of California, Berkeley invites both nominations and applications for the position of Director of The Bancroft Library and Associate University Librarian (AUL) for Special Collections. Bancroft’s world-renowned special collections are among the largest and most actively used in the nation, providing a tremendous opportunity for the right visionary leader. The Director and AUL will assume a newly reimagined role, which unites the direction of a major research and collecting institution with strategic, innovative, and collaborative leadership for all special collections and archives within the University Library.

The University Library at Berkeley comprises 24 general and subject libraries, with shared service units that support business functions, such as finance and development, and content functions, such as digitization and communications. Within the organization, The Bancroft Library is the principal special collections library, with other significant collections of rare and archival materials held in the Anthropology, Bioscience, East Asian, Environmental Design, and Music libraries. The Director and AUL will bring experience and energy to both the direct leadership and management of The Bancroft Library and the strategic and coordinated development and management of the Library’s special collections, in collaboration with the AUL for Scholarly Resources and the Director of the East Asian Library. The Director and AUL will join the Library’s executive leadership team, working in close partnership with the leaders of other Library units, and report to the University Librarian.

LEADERSHIP

The University Library is looking for a leader with proven experience, bold ideas, and the confidence and political acumen to execute them. With crucial responsibility for fundraising and for interacting with scholars at Berkeley and internationally, this leader should be skillful at engaging in passionate content discourse with researchers, and preferably bring experience in one of Bancroft’s major collecting areas. With both University Library-wide responsibilities and leadership of one constituent library, the Director and AUL will be an integral member of a tightly integrated, collaborative team that collectively supports the University Library’s strategic vision (see: ucberk.li/our-plan). The Director and AUL should be able to foster a culture of innovation, engagement, and collaboration, and promote continuous professional growth and learning at all staff levels.

The five AULs, the Director of the East Asian Library, the Director of Communications, and the Executive Director of Development report to the University Librarian; collectively these nine professionals constitute the Library Cabinet. This team works closely to set strategic directions and policies for the entire Library. They collaborate in an intensely matrix-organized institution, providing each other with partnership and support services. The special collections outside of Bancroft, for example, will benefit from coherent, coordinated practices in collection development, provenance, metadata creation, and ethical access led by this Director and AUL. Similarly, among other examples, Bancroft benefits from the fundraising research, cultivation, and stewardship services provided by the Library’s development office.

Director of The Bancroft Library

This position’s primary responsibility is to serve as the Director of The Bancroft Library. Bancroft’s leadership team includes the Director; a Deputy Director, who leads the curatorial staff and oversees public access services and operations; and an Assistant Director, who leads the technical services operation. The Director of The Bancroft Library also leads the directors of the three academic research groups and is the principal Bancroft liaison to the Berkeley faculty. Bancroft’s leadership team, together with other senior members of the Bancroft staff and in collaboration with other University Library leaders, has primary responsibility for collection development, research and academic engagement, technical services, public access services, and outreach and fundraising. The Director leads fundraising for Bancroft in collaboration with the University Librarian and the Executive Director of Development. The Director engages actively with scholars and members of the international antiquarian book and manuscript trade, as well as the wider scholarly community. The Director has overall responsibility for all Bancroft activity, while other members of Bancroft’s leadership team oversee much of the day-to-day operations.

The Director is responsible for leading Bancroft consistent with the Library’s core principles and values. For example, the Director should promote a user-centered approach to the acquisition, processing, and accessibility of special collections in analog and digital formats. The Director will advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging — both within The Bancroft Library and, through its user services, beyond.

The Director is responsible for managing The Bancroft Library’s annual budget of about $8 million (including substantial gift, endowment, and grant funds), as well as facilities and personnel. As do the directors of all constituent libraries that compose the University Library, the Director of The Bancroft Library collaborates closely with the leaders who have Library-wide responsibilities for communications, digital services, facilities, finance, fundraising, human resources, information technology, legal affairs, and security. The Director also collaborates with the leaders of special collections at the other University of California campuses, and is an active participant in the national community of leaders of the most prominent academic special collections libraries.

Associate University Librarian for Special Collections

The AUL for Special Collections is a new role, designed to provide overall leadership for the rare and archival materials we consider special collections at the University Library. This AUL will work with the leaders of other units holding special collections to provide coordinated, forward-looking strategies and practices for the development, management, and use of Berkeley’s extraordinary collections. Together they will innovate and implement process efficiencies, reducing duplication and increasing consistency to improve the resource-finding and use experiences of scholars. During an era of limited budget growth, despite significant fundraising success, close collaboration and mutual support across the University Library have enabled the organization to continuously improve services for scholars.

Selected strategic highlights

Enhanced access to and use of the University Library’s special collections is a top strategic priority. Bancroft and the other University Library special collections have been leaders in enhancing access to archival treasures in the age of digitized and networked information. Continuing digitization of its enormous special collections is a primary focus of the University Library’s Digital Lifecycle Program, which currently adds about 1.5 million newly digitized files to its online collections annually. An important and exciting priority for this position is to work closely with the AUL for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology to scale up this program, including developing and adopting expanded selection, curation, and processing workflows, as well as exploring new methods and tools for increasing the computational usability of digitized collections in research and teaching.

As with many cultural heritage and information resource organizations in higher education, Bancroft and other University Library special collections are simultaneously blessed by growing demand for existing and new services, and challenged by declining public investment in their operations. Fortunately, Bancroft is supported with the advice and philanthropy of the external nonprofit Friends of The Bancroft Library, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, as well as strong philanthropic support from many loyal donors. The University Library has recently invested in expanding its fundraising team, with notable success, and the groundwork has been laid for even more growth in the coming years. It is crucial that the Director and AUL have a demonstrated talent or potential for fundraising and supporting initiatives through grants.

Nature of appointment

This is an academic leadership position. Qualified candidates may simultaneously hold a faculty position at the University of California, Berkeley. External candidates who wish a joint faculty appointment will need to seek such a position with a relevant department. The University Library will facilitate consideration, but is not the appointing unit and cannot guarantee such a position will be made available. The position will be for 75 percent or 100 percent effort, to be agreed upon with the preferred candidate, depending on faculty status and preference for teaching duties (through an academic department).

Minimum basic qualification at time of application:

Advanced degree (For example, PhD or Masters or equivalent international degree)

Preferred qualifications: Must be met by start date on the job

The Director of The Bancroft Library and AUL for Special Collections should be a scholar who has substantial experience engaging in research using special collections materials, particularly in an area or areas of special strength for Bancroft. The successful candidate might have a background as a faculty member or professional librarian or archivist. Preferred candidates will have experience leading an academic unit (e.g., as academic department chair, dean, academic library, or archives director or associate director), including supervising and/or directing academic and professional staff. 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. Also preferred is experience and proven success with fundraising and grant writing.