Special Collections Digital Archivist

Department: Library Special Collections

Rank and Salary: Assistant Librarian - Librarian ($61,920 - $108,349)

Position Availability: Immediately

Application deadline for first consideration: August 30, 2024

 

 

The Special Collections Digital Archivist provides leadership and coordination for collecting and stewarding Library Special Collections’ digitized and born-digital materials and supports LSC efforts to provide access to special collections material across platforms. This highly collaborative position plays a critical role in cultivating strong cross-departmental relationships with key stakeholders throughout the library to enhance workflows that ensure long-term stewardship and access to digital special collections.

 

Position Duties

Reporting to the Team Leader for Collection Management, the incumbent develops and implements policies and procedures that facilitate stewardship and access to LSC’s digitized and born-digital materials in accordance with emerging standards and best practices in collaboration with Digital Initiative and Information Technology (DIIT) and other library units.

 

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Works closely with LSC staff to increase capacity for processing, arranging, and describing both incoming and legacy digitized and born-digital materials.
• Partners with stakeholders throughout the library to enhance existing digitization infrastructure as it pertains to LSC materials and across all phases of the project lifecycle, including feasibility assessments and reviews, stewardship of physical source collections, imaging or reformatting, metadata creation, ingest, testing, promotion, and assessment.
• Articulates, shares, and communicates priorities and goals for LSC digital projects to internal and external stakeholders.
• Conducts pre-custodial activities in collaboration with donors, curators, and the accessioning archivist to appraise and safely transfer born digital materials during the collection acquisition process.
• Consults with curatorial, collection management, and LSC public services staff to support and implement workflows and protocols to develop digital access strategies that leverage the use of baseline description as a tool to improve the discoverability of digital materials.
• Ensures LSC digital projects are informed by and in alignment with Digital Initiatives services.
• Contributes to ongoing assessment of usage, user behavior, and user needs relating to digital collections in order to inform new initiatives and continual improvements to digital collections and discovery platforms.
• Participates in the conception and development of grant applications to help UCLA Library build infrastructure for born-digital materials and to complete digital projects.
• Represents UCLA Library in UC-wide and national, regional, and local committees and forums on matters relevant to digital special collections access.
• Supervises 1 FTE.
• Works closely with Library Development to identify and steward donors, collections, and endowed gift funds.
• The successful candidate will be committed to promoting and enhancing diversity through engagement with and promotion of the UCLA Principles of Community (http://www.ucla.edu/about/mission-and-values).

 

Required Qualifications

• ALA-accredited Master’s Degree in Library or Information Science required at the time of hire; OR Master’s degree (or other advanced degree) in Information Sciences or related field at the time of hire and work experience in a library setting.
• Knowledge of and experience with standards and best practices for digitization and description of cultural heritage materials and demonstrated understanding of issues and challenges related to archival and bibliographic description.
• Familiarity with legal and ethical considerations for digitized and born-digital access.
• Experience with archival technologies and tools related to appraising, accessioning, processing, preserving, and providing access to born digital archives (e.g. FTK, ePADD, BitCurator).
• Ability to initiate and maintain cooperative working relationships with co-workers, supervisors, and managers within and across departmental and unit lines and to represent LSC to relevant constituencies.
• Demonstrated ability to address issues of diversity and equity, and a commitment to and understanding of ethical and inclusive description strategies.
• Experience with successful project management including demonstrated ability to set priorities and deadlines and stay within budget.
• Experience training or mentoring colleagues.

 

Applicants with all the above basic qualifications and any of the following preferred qualifications or professional experiences are strongly encouraged to apply: 1) Experience in donor relations and stewardship; 2) One to two years’ experience working in special collections in an academic or research library; 3) Knowledge of licensing and copyright issues as they relate to the duplication and digitization of material; 4) knowledge of at least one non-English language.

 

General Information

Professional librarians at UCLA are academic appointees. Librarians at UCLA are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This is a represented position. They are entitled to appropriate professional leave, two days per month of vacation leave, one day per month of sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. 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. Relocation assistance may be provided.

 

Appointees to the librarian series at UC shall have professional backgrounds that demonstrate a high degree of creativity, teamwork, and flexibility.  Such background will normally include a professional degree from an ALA-accredited library and information science graduate program.  In addition to professional competence and quality of service within the library in the primary job, advancement in the librarian series requires professional involvement and contributions outside of the library, and/or university and community service, and/or scholarly activities.  Candidates must show evidence or promise of such contributions.

 

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

 

Application Procedures

Anyone wishing to be considered for this position should apply here: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF09650

 

Applications must include:

• a cover letter describing qualifications and experience;
• a current resume/vitae detailing education and relevant experience;
• the names and contact information for three professional references, including a current or previous supervisor; and
• a Statement of Contributions to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) -  Equity, diversity, and inclusion are key components of The University of California’s commitment to excellence. Thus, teaching, research, professional, and public service contributions that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion are encouraged and given due recognition in the evaluation of each candidate’s qualifications. Please provide an EDI statement addressing your understanding of the barriers facing marginalized communities, and your awareness of and commitment to promoting an inclusionary library and campus environment. Describe your past, and/or future contributions to equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.

Candidates are invited to review the following:

• UCLA EDI statement (https://equity.ucla.edu/edi-ucla/)
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Statement FAQs (https://ucla.app.box.com/v/edi-statement-faqs)
• UCLA Library ARI and EDI efforts: https://www.library.ucla.edu/about-ucla-library/anti-racism-initiative

 

UCLA welcomes and encourages diversity and seeks applications and nominations from women and minorities.  UCLA seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the people of California, to maintain the excellence of the university, and to offer our students richly varied disciplines, perspectives, and ways of knowing and learning.

 

Description of Unit

Library Special Collections (LSC) builds and stewards special collections resources, services, and operations. The department consists of four teams: Curatorial; Processing/Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT); Collection Management (CM); and Public Services, Outreach, and Community Engagement (PSOCE).

 

• The Curatorial Team is responsible for collection development and acquisition of materials in support of research and teaching.
• The CFPRT makes collection material discoverable and accessible through ethical and iterative processing in a pedagogical model.
• The CM Team develops and implements policies and processes to ensure responsible stewardship of collections.
• The PSOCE Team integrates public-facing operations for LSC including reference and instruction, programmatic events, and activities.

 

The entire staff of approximately 30 FTE work together holistically to build, preserve, and provide access to the outstanding rare and unique holdings of the UCLA Library. LSC works closely with our colleagues within the Distinctive Collections portfolio to steward a range of international resources in support of UCLA’s mission for the betterment of our global society.

 

Description of Institution and Library

As one of the world's great public research universities, UCLA integrates education, research, and public service so that each enriches and extends the others. From its beautiful neighborhood campus in a uniquely diverse and vibrant city on the Pacific Rim, teaching and research extend beyond the classroom, office, and lab through active engagement with communities, organizations, projects, and partnerships throughout the region and around the world.

 

UCLA’s diverse community of scholars encompasses nearly 30,000 undergraduates pursuing 125 majors, 13,000 graduate students in fifty-nine research programs, and 4,000 faculty members including Nobel Laureates; Rhodes Scholars; MacArthur Fellows; winners of the Fields Medal, National Medal of Science, Pritzker Prize, and Pulitzer Prize; and recipients of Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, and Golden Globes. UCLA ranks tenth in the Times of London Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, twelfth in the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and fifth in the U.S. by Washington Monthly. The National Research Council ranks forty of its graduate and doctoral research programs among its top ten.

 

To enable these accomplished students, faculty, and staff to create, disseminate, and apply knowledge for the benefit of global society, the UCLA Library is re-envisioning how it is acquired, synthesized, and shared across academic audiences and with the public.  It was among the first academic libraries to develop subject-specialist librarians and to launch a program to enhance students’ research skills. Its Special Collections pioneered the acquisition by public institutions of rare and unique books, children’s literature, pulp and detective fiction, works by or about women and minorities, screenplays, architectural plans, and Los Angeles-related materials and today leads the way in collecting archival resources in digital format such as emails and manuscripts.  It has launched innovative data management services and an affordable course materials initiative that have served as models for other libraries.

 

The Library serves UCLA students, faculty, and staff whenever and wherever they need its resources and expertise. Reconfigured, high-tech spaces and services in its ten campus libraries enable users and librarians to explore and work with print and digital materials collaboratively or individually, pursue new lines of inquiry, and develop new pedagogical approaches as well as novel forms of scholarship.  More than 3.5 million people visit annually, while an additional 3.4 million visitors enter online through its virtual front doors.

 

Whether on campus or online, the Library forms the intellectual heart of UCLA, a hub for cutting-edge discovery, scholarship, and instruction.

 

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 policy on discrimination, harassment, and affirmative action see:  University of California – Policy Discrimination, Harassment, and Affirmative Action in the Workplace at https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/DiscHarassAffirmAction

 

Under federal law, the University of California may employ only individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States as established by providing documents specified in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.  Employment is contingent upon completion of satisfactory background investigation.

 

Visit the Jobs @ UCLA Library website at: https://www.library.ucla.edu/about/jobs/