The Digital Humanities Librarian will establish and grow a dynamic, multifaceted program that addresses the growing demand for digital arts and humanities support on campus. Working with arts and humanities scholars, faculty and students, the Digital Humanities Librarian will foster successful adoption and application of digital arts and humanities approaches to research, teaching, and learning. The librarian will engage deeply with the Digital Arts and Humanities scholars around campus, the Goldberg Center, the Humanities Institute, ACCAD (Advanced Computer Center for the Arts and Design), and other campus entities to identify innovative and evolving digital tools and resources that advance scholarly investigation, while building upon the traditional cornerstones of research methodologies in the arts and humanities disciplines.
As a member of the Research Services Department, which leads the Libraries in creating new, engagement-centered service models based in cross-university partnerships, the Digital Humanities Librarian will be a change agent, partner, and resource person for subject librarians, Research Commons staff, and Special Collections curators involved in facilitating faculty and student digital projects and will be expected to analyze and understand the campus environment to identify emerging areas of interest. This tenure-track librarian will have responsibility for providing user-centered services in support of teaching, research, and scholarship as a liaison to a humanities discipline and will approach the delivery of services with creativity and innovation to align with the Libraries’ Strategic Plan and to operate within the Engaged Librarian Framework.
Responsibilities:
Liaison
- Actively engage and communicate effectively with faculty, students, and staff in assigned areas, developing strong working relationships.
- Be knowledgeable and able to speak about a range of library issues, including scholarly communication, digital initiatives, the use and development of online tools, copyright, data management, and the integration of information literacy skills into the curriculum.
- With support from the Libraries’ Assessment Coordinator, assess user needs to develop and maintain relevant, high-quality services and collections.
- Work with other arts and humanities subject librarians to analyze trends in departmental teaching and research programs, stay abreast of scholarship in the disciplines themselves, and use this knowledge to anticipate users’ needs.
- Work closely with the Head of the Fine Arts Library, the Data Management Services Librarian, the Research Commons Manager, Special Collections Curators, the Head of Digital Initiatives, and others in order to develop strategies focused on scholars’ digital production and curation needs.
- Champion the Libraries as an intellectual meeting place for programming, content, and inquiry.
Research Services
- Analyze and understand users’ research and information needs to develop, refine, assess, and sustain research and information services and programs in all formats.
- Actively seek opportunities to foster interdisciplinary collaborations in the provision of research and information services across the campus.
- Partner with OSUL Digital Initiatives and Research Commons to identify and evaluate current and emerging digital tools and methodologies supporting humanities scholars.
- Coordinate information about digital arts and humanities scholarship on campus in order to connect scholars across the disciplines and facilitate interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration.
- Provide research consultations for students and faculty members engaged with digital arts and humanities projects and, as appropriate, with students and faculty aligned with the University’s Discovery Themes particularly Data Analytics.
- Continuously evaluate and assess research and information-related services.
Teaching and Learning
- Provide instruction, as needed on digital tools and methodologies to support digital humanities research and teaching.
- Actively engage with faculty and graduate teaching assistants as partners in programmatically integrating information literacy concepts and skills into the curriculum.
- Understand and apply basic principles of instructional and assignment design, develop effective instructional materials and sessions in a variety of formats and provide alternative learning opportunities.
- Engage in reflective teaching through the use of instructional improvement tools available from the Libraries’ Teaching & Learning Department and the university.
Scholarly Communication
- Understand the scholarly communication process, publishing models, and emerging trends in assigned disciplines.
- Understand and explain the principles behind open access publishing, institutional repositories, and authors’ rights.
- Promote Ohio State University Libraries publishing partnership options.
Collection Development and Management
- Strategically select material in all formats to serve the current and future research, teaching, and learning needs in assigned subject areas.
- Broaden access to collections through digital project initiatives and actively acquire and promote both licensed and freely available digital resources of value to researchers, particularly related to data.
- Build on collections of distinction that may also serve regional, national and international users.
- Work effectively with colleagues to enhance acquisition, access, discovery, and use of library collections.
Required Qualifications:
- An ALA-accredited MLS or MLIS degree or PhD in relevant subject area or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Experience with digital arts and humanities research tools and approaches (e.g., text mining, data visualization, image analysis, and augmented reality).
- Knowledge of data issues in the research/knowledge creation lifecycle.
- Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with faculty, subject librarians, special collections and others in order to advance digital arts and humanities research.
Desired Qualifications:
- Experience in developing a multifaceted program for a multidisciplinary constituency.
- Familiarity with research methodologies across a variety of arts and humanities disciplines.
- Demonstrated project management, organizational, analytical, and problem solving skills.
- Familiarity with data visualization tools and techniques applied to humanities research.
- Experience representing a library to external stakeholders and engaging in consortial projects or programs.
- Demonstrated ability to lead change.
About OSU Libraries: A Driving Force for Change
The Ohio State University Libraries is a highly valued partner and campus leader in advancing discovery and learning for OSU, for the state of Ohio and for an ever expanding community of world scholars. Aligned with the University’s vision to be the world’s preeminent public comprehensive university, the Libraries advance student and faculty success by delivering distinctive content and fostering intellectual connections.
A world-class public research and comprehensive teaching university such as OSU demands a top research library and OSU Libraries is rising to eminence along with the rest of the University. The Libraries, a leader among peers, is currently ranked in the top 10 among the public university members of the Association of Research Libraries, a reflection of the investment of the University. This ranking also places OSU Libraries within the top 20 of 126 ARL member libraries. The OSU Libraries is an essential charter member of OhioLINK, a consortium of 88 Ohio academic libraries and the State Library of Ohio and shares resources through that organization. The Libraries also enhances collections and services by participation in the CIC, the academic consortium of Big Ten institutions.
With this support and these partnerships, the OSU Libraries has turned its attention to rapid innovation to address the challenges of the evolving academic environment. Major renovation projects continue to enhance our spaces for collaborative and dynamic teaching, learning and research. An ambitious talent management plan is bringing new skills and reframing long held strengths. Increased investment in a wide variety of digital initiatives aims to revolutionize discovery and access anytime, anywhere to our vast and distinctive resources. Our impact reaches beyond our campus and extends the land-grant mission internationally. To learn more about the strategic plan under current implementation, visit: https://go.osu.edu/libraries_strategic_plan. For a snapshot of our ambitions for long-term growth and innovation, visit our fundraising Campaign statement: http://library.osu.edu/news/giving-to-the-libraries/.
Rank/Salary:
The position is a full-time, permanent, 12-month tenure-track faculty appointment and reports to the Head of Research Services. Salary and faculty rank are dependent on qualifications and experience.
Benefits:
The University offers competitive benefits in the form of 22 days’ vacation, 15 days’ sick leave, 10 holidays, hospitalization, major medical, surgical-medical, dental, vision, long-term disability insurance, and life insurance at 2.5 times one’s annual salary. State and alternative retirement choices are also available. For a summary of benefits, see: http://go.osu.edu/benefitssummary.
Application:
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Preference will be given to applications received by February 29, 2016. Please send cover letter, CV, references, and salary history and requirements to Kelly Rose at rose.900@osu.edu. Please include Digital Humanities Librarian in the subject field.
Contact Information: Kelly Rose, Human Resources, 1858 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, 614-292-5917.
The Ohio State University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, disability status, or protected veteran status
