Job ID 13436
Following a year-long strategic and organizational planning process that coincided with retirements in several areas, the Boston College Libraries seek several highly collaborative professionals to provide leadership and direction for newly configured and innovative services. The Libraries offer an agile and dynamic environment that encourages exploration of user-centered initiatives. Successful candidates will have an inherent desire to develop and assess services, and a demonstrated track record of successful implementation of strategies that enhance teaching, learning, research, and scholarship. For more information on these positions and working at the Boston College University Libraries, please visit our employment site: library.bc.edu/employment.
Job Description
The Head of Digital Scholarship will lead the team and colleagues across the libraries to envision, plan and deliver innovative and sustainable digital research services in concert with student, faculty, and library needs. Through exploration of new technologies, and engagement with digital scholarship and digital library practices, standards and systems, this individual will provide strong leadership, coordination, and project management for the team. The Head will possess a strong technical background to direct the selection and implementation of appropriate technologies and develop the skill set of the team. He or she will: oversee all requests for new digital scholarship initiatives; contribute to discussions of digital collection building with creative ideas for meaningful new uses of digital content and an understanding of data curation; and develop services in support of introducing digital research methods and approaches, supporting engagement with new audiences. The Head will engage in outreach and maintain relationships with faculty, staff and campus partners to enable digital research and development of the digital scholarship program at Boston College and beyond.
Reporting to the Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives & Services, the Head of Digital Scholarship manages a team of four, and coordinates the relationship with two Systems staff. The Head oversees the Libraries’ Digital Scholarship program, which can include outreach to faculty and service via the Digital Studio, and manages key relationships with university departments and partners such as the Center for Teaching Excellence, Institute for Liberal Arts, and ITS Research Services. In concert with the Head of Assessment & Outreach, the Head will collect and analyze use statistics, prepare reports, and make recommendations for digital research and scholarship for the Boston College Libraries.
Requirements
ALA-accredited Master’s degree in Library or Information Science or an advanced degree in an appropriate subject discipline is required.
Minimum five years of work experience in a research setting, with 2+ years of managerial experience preferred.
Exceptional technology skills, knowledge of current trends, and ability to evaluate and apply new technologies. Knowledge of and demonstrated experience working with web tools and interfaces, xml standards, digital library systems, and metadata standards.
Demonstrated experience in applying and/or developing tools and methods, such as data visualization (eg statistical or geo-spatial), network analysis, text analysis (i.e. topic modeling), text encoding, or database design.
Experience leading or managing digital humanities or digital scholarship projects in an academic setting
Substantial demonstrated experience in planning, managing and delivering strategic research projects, and articulating the opportunities of digital research to scholars and librarians
Demonstrated project management skills and experience – both leading and working within complex project teams – while effectively balancing competing priorities and deadlines
Experience contributing to grant applications, with a successful track record in the management of funding and awards
Excellent interpersonal, collaborative, written and oral communication skills
Experience negotiating with vendors of technology services and equipment
Experience with programming languages, such as Ruby or Python and ability to deploy code in web contexts, such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, or similar, is highly desired.
Closing Statement
The Boston College Libraries are a member of the Association of Research Libraries, Center for Research Libraries, OCLC Research Library Partnership, HathiTrust, Boston Library Consortium, and other organizations that extend our reach globally. Following a year-long strategic and organizational planning process that coincided with retirements in several areas, the Libraries are currently seeking seven highly collaborative professionals to provide leadership and direction for newly configured and innovative services. The Libraries offer an agile and dynamic environment that encourages exploration of user-centered initiatives.
Boston College conducts background checks as part of the hiring process.
Boston College is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected category including disability and protected veteran status. To learn more about how BC supports diversity and inclusion throughout the university please visit the Office for Institutional Diversity at http://www.bc.edu/offices/diversity.
Please apply online through Boston College Job Search:
For questions regarding this recruitment, please contact: Boston College Human Resources: employment@bc.edu (617) 552-3330
