Institution
Job Title
Director of Information and Technical Services
Department/College
Information and Technical Services
Dates
Opening Date: 10/20/2021
Closing Date: 01/19/2022
Job Description
Although the position will remain posted until filled, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply by end of day on December 4, 2021.
Reporting to the Associate University Librarian for Discovery and Access, the Director of Information and Technical Services will lead the Information and Technical Services department of the Harvard Library. The Director will provide the day-to-day management of Harvard Library staff engaged in technical services activities (including acquisitions, e-resources/serials, metadata creation, and metadata management) for all libraries in the Harvard Library system, as well as provide vision and leadership for Harvard Library initiatives within their purview. The Director serves as a trusted advisor for library leaders making policy-level decisions and sets priorities in ordering, scoping, licensing, and project planning for ITS services and special projects. Information and Technical Services has 110+ staff in multiple locations and an annual operations budget of $15.5 million dollars. The Director serves as an active member of the Harvard Library Leadership Team.
Job Duties
- The Director will leverage staff resources to meet strategic priorities within financial constraints.
- Manage and lead staff members engaged in acquiring, describing and ensuring access to materials in all formats and in many languages and disciplines.
- Promote and facilitate coordinated technical services across the Harvard Library; ensure programmatic integrity and cooperative planning that strengthen access to the collection.
- Ensure that the work of ITS addresses identified user needs for a diverse and inclusive user community.
- Demonstrate accountability and creativity in building strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders and foster an environment of innovation and continuous improvement.
- Serve as a member of the four person Discovery and Access Leadership Team focused on integrating services across the portfolio to enhance delivery of content to users.
- Encourage the exchange of metadata and digital content with external partners to broaden the impact of Harvard Library in the global knowledge community.
- Contribute to Library-wide planning and to all initiatives that advance the Library’s strategic priorities
Strategic Planning and Leadership
- Foster a creative and innovative approach to the accomplishment of strategic goals and programs
- Ensure regular reviews of best practices through technology watches and research; undertake continuous improvement of user-focused services
- Work with colleagues to agreed levels of service and ensure that agreed standards of technical services are provided
- Serve as lead on tactics in the Harvard Library Multi Year Goals and Objectives focused on reimagining technical services
Leadership and Resource Management
- Inspire and oversee user-centered technical services operations and delivery of service across a large, distributed library system through management of a diverse workforce and a complex budget
- Lead functional managers through review and identification of discrete work processes, change management and initiatives that enhance technical services
- Build and develop critical capabilities throughout the organization through strategic hiring, staff development and talent management
- Foster an environment that promotes accountability, high performance, staff engagement and diversity through a sense of purpose and spirit of cooperation; set standards of excellence that inspire and motivate
- Define and develop Harvard’s role in training and development of the profession to advance technical services
Collaboration and Outreach
- Recommend policy, service, financial and contractual commitments for Harvard Library to participate in national and international programs; monitor current participation and recommend future participation in relevant collaborative initiatives
- Build and promote library-wide collaborations that meet service needs through active engagement with colleagues across the Harvard Library system
- Coordinate with stakeholders among the faculty and research communities
- Represent the Harvard Library in regional, national, and international associations
Experience/Qualifications/Knowledge/Skills
Basic Qualifications
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Bachelor's degree required with an ALA-accredited master's degree in library or information science, or a minimum of ten years' experience' with eight years of directly related experience
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Experience in managing a complex budget and in financial planning and analysis
Additional Qualifications
- Demonstrable experience leading progressive initiatives with integrated library systems,,bibliographic utilities, metadata schema, and linked data
- Track record in leading high-performing teams and in spear-heading transformational change
- Demonstrated ability to manage staff in a hybrid work environment
- Commitment to diversity, inclusion, belonging and antiracism in expanding world knowledge and intellectual exploration
- Ability to identify strategic priorities and to lead, preferably with experience from within a large academic research library
- Working knowledge of academic institutions and ability to respond to faculty expectations, academic calendars, and varied planning cycles
- Ability to monitor multiple projects that engage a range of partners
- Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively influence, persuade and promote the organization’s work internally and externally
Supplementation Information
DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, BELONGING, AND ANTI-RACISM AT HARVARD LIBRARY
Harvard University aims to be the world’s recognized leader in sustainable inclusive excellence by fostering a campus culture where everyone can thrive. Working in close collaboration with offices across the university, the Harvard Library is becoming one of the campus leaders in advancing equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging and antiracism. We believe that an inclusive environment that cultivates and promotes understanding, respect, and collaboration across our diverse workforce enables our success. As well, we believe that our work with faculty, students and researchers to explore answers to intellectual questions, enduring and new, and to seek solutions to the world’s most consequential problems, requires that we not only reflect, but also advance our diverse society.
Harvard Library’s core values are the foundation upon which our antiracism agenda is being developed. Our values emphasize that we lead with curiosity, seek collaboration, champion access, aim for the extraordinary, and cultivate and celebrate diversity in our collections and our community to construct a more inclusive and just world. Our focus on antiracism is a commitment to live our values. It is about building not only a better organization, but a better research library – an exemplary antiracist research library. We aspire to be global leaders in expanding world knowledge and intellectual exploration, and that starts on our campus, where we are a center for knowledge supporting our faculty and students in pursuing antiracism through their research, teaching and learning.
Our commitment to antiracism is a commitment to addressing other forms of discrimination as well, such as those based on gender, sexuality, religion or ability. Our antiracism work will continue a strong record of diversity initiatives, ranging from targeted collection development and the design of inclusive spaces to a learning journey for staff and a focus on employee recruitment and retention. We are deeply committed to increasing diversity in the profession, through activities such as our longstanding membership in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Diversity Alliance.
How to Apply
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