University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
University Libraries
Digital Scholarship Librarian
The Digital Scholarship Librarian (DSL) provides strategic direction for the University of Minnesota Libraries in developing and sustaining new models of support for digital scholarship, primarily through coordination of the Digital Arts Sciences & Humanities (DASH) initiative. The DSL guides campus scholars on the integration of digital technologies and methodologies in research and teaching, including developing workshops and other events and overseeing development and execution of specific digital scholarship projects. The DSL facilitates a DASH operations cooperative composed of members from multiple campus units, including Liberal Arts Technologies & Innovation Services (LATIS) in the College of Liberal Arts, and manages an overall portfolio of projects. The Digital Scholarship Librarian has responsibility for shaping additional partnerships in support of the DASH initiative. The DSL works in close collaboration with liaison librarians, special collections curators and archivists, program leads on data curation and publishing services, staff in LATIS, and other campus units.
Responsibilities:
Reporting to the Director for Arts & Humanities, the Digital Scholarship Librarian collaborates with Libraries staff and a diverse community of campus partners to provide a suite of consultative and educational services that advance innovative and interdisciplinary work on campus, and has direct responsibility to:
Develop service partnerships and manage collaborative practices
- Develop proposals to implement a robust, distributed service model with campus partners, managed through partner agreements and enhanced through regular communication. Oversee implementation and evolution of the service model.
- Coordinate and participate in the efforts of a distributed cohort of liaison librarians, curators, academic technologists, and others to provide consultation services, implement education programs, and develop projects.
- Develop and manage a process to solicit and evaluate project and program proposals. Direct development of project plans and project teams, negotiate for resources with managers in libraries and other campus units, and supervise project management processes.
- Participate in or direct development of grant proposals to support particular projects and initiatives, both within and outside the Libraries.
Provide clear pathways to guidance and support for university faculty, staff, and students engaging in digital scholarship projects and technology-enhanced learning
- Develop and maintain a clear and robust web presence related to DASH, featuring defined tools, project showcases, guidance for project initiation, and other recommendations.
- Market and promote DASH services to raise scholars’ awareness of available programs and resources.
- Partner with campus scholars to integrate new technologies and methodologies with traditional resources and approaches in the areas of research and teaching, through education, referrals, consultations, and other programmatic efforts.
- Engage in faculty development to increase facility with DASH methodologies through programming and consultations.
- Develop and facilitate events and educational programs that offer the opportunity to deepen knowledge of DASH methods and engage with colleagues from across campus.
Develop next generation researchers
- Actively engage with a diverse community of faculty and graduate teaching assistants as partners in programmatically integrating DASH concepts and skills into the curriculum;
- Assess campus education needs related to DASH and coordinating the development and execution of in-person and online training.
- Engage with graduate students and graduate program leads from diverse communities and cultures on such topics as DASH methods & tools, data management practices, emerging scholarly products, alt-ac careers.
Position the University Libraries for innovation and opportunity
- Attend to and explore emerging tools and scholarly practices.
- Articulate service value and outcomes through metrics and other indicators.
- Evaluate existing and emerging technologies in support of digital scholarship and make recommendations for development or adoption, in keeping with campus infrastructure priorities.
- Develop and facilitate ongoing professional development opportunities to enhance DASH knowledge among service partners.
- Contribute to the knowledge base of the profession through research, publication, and professional engagement.
Qualifications:
Required:
- American Library Association accredited Master’s degree in Library/Information Science OR equivalent combination of advanced degree (e.g., PhD in a humanities discipline) and relevant experience.
- Demonstrated research and/or teaching experience with current technologies and applications used in digital scholarship
- Familiarity with the current state of Digital Humanities within the academy
- Recent project management and/or design process experience
- Excellent interpersonal, presentation, facilitation, and communication skills
- Proven ability to work successfully with diverse populations and demonstrated commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion
Preferred:
- Experience with digital humanities technologies, such as web development (HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript), text mining, GIS, visualization tools, Omeka, WordPress, and programming (Python, Java)
- Demonstrated expertise with data management and data curation techniques for a variety of digital media (text, code, images, music, etc.)
- Demonstrated familiarity with multiple data structures (relational databases, XML, and RDF)
- Understanding of new forms of digital scholarly publishing, including multimodal and interactive publications
- Successful grant-writing experience
Background:
With collections of over 8 million volumes, the University of Minnesota Libraries is recognized for rich historical and special collections, innovative technologies, and model programs in support of research and learning. The Libraries’ current plan positions the organization as a strategic institutional asset and advances collaborative models for creating and supporting knowledge resources for the campus and global communities.
Libraries’ outreach beyond the University is strengthened by unparalleled infrastructure for resource sharing, information access, content licensing, digitization, and digital preservation within the state and region provided by the state-supported Minitex program, a division of the University Libraries. The Minitex-based Minnesota Digital Library serves as a service hub for the Digital Public Library of America. The Libraries is a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Center for Library Initiatives, the HathiTrust, the Digital Preservation Network, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, Council of Library and Information Resources/Digital Library Federation, DuraSpace, and the Center for Research Libraries.
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, is a classic Big Ten campus in the heart of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It is both the state land-grant university, with a strong tradition of education and public service, and a major research institution, with scholars of national and international reputation.
SALARY AND BENEFITS: This is a full-time, 12-month, continuous-appointment track, academic professional position with probationary appointment at the Assistant or Associate Librarian level. The Libraries offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience, excellent benefits, and a moving allowance. Any offer of employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a background check.
To Apply go to http://z.umn.edu/ulib356. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Submit a letter of application; a resume; and the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three current references. Please identify applications with UL356.
