Digital Services Librarian

Position Description: Reporting to the Head, Preservation Department, the Digital Preservation Librarian establishes policies and best practices for the long-term protection and access to digital materials and advises on all phases of the life cycle of digital content with the aim of long-term retention and access. Working closely with staff in Library Information Technology, Digital Library Services, Preservation, and other library departments, as well as with partners at other institutions, the Digital Preservation Librarian will:

·         Research, plan, and develop the digital preservation program for the University Libraries’ collections of enduring value in digital format: review existing library practices and analyze needs and establish policies and best practices for the long-term protection and access to digital materials of all types, both created and acquired by the library. Digital collections to be preserved include text, images, datasets, audio-visual resources, Web pages, and ephemera.

·         Assist in the ongoing development of requirements and specifications, including formats and metadata, for digital material the library solicits, accepts, or purchases into its collections. Advise both library staff and external content creators on strategies and the practical implementation of those specifications.

·         Advise library staff about digital initiatives on all phases of the life cycle of digital content, including research datasets, with the aim of long-term retention and access; provide training or orientations. Identify digital storage needs and recommend storage medium.

·         Represent and champion digital preservation interests across the library, the university, and to the community at large.

·         Prepare proposals for external funding for digital preservation projects. Prepare specifications for vended services that support the digital preservation program; evaluate responses to proposals for such services, make recommendations for selecting vendors; and act on behalf of the library as a technical liaison on preservation issues to vendors providing digital materials.

·         Represent the University Libraries in cooperative projects or programs in digital preservation.

·         Research and advise the library on contingency plans against threats to the digital collections, such as industry changes to file formats, natural disaster, and security breaches.

·         Stay current on developing technologies, standards, and practice in preservation of digital collections and data curation; recommend responses to these developments through periodic alerts, summaries, reports, and revisions to policies and procedures. Represent the University Library in forums on digital preservation at the campus, regional, national, or international level.

Required Qualifications:

·         Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited program.

·         Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

·         Demonstrated interest in professional development that will enhance the candidate’s value to the Libraries, the University, the profession, or the scholarly community.

·         Demonstrated commitment to diversity in the workplace or community.

·         Demonstrated understanding of current digitization best practices for a variety of formats.

·         Demonstrated knowledge of current and emerging preservation metadata standards.

·         Demonstrated understanding of copyright laws and rights management issues in a digital environment.

·         Familiarity with digital preservation and a trusted digital repository.

·         Demonstrated planning, time management and organizational skills.

·         Demonstrated ability to work independently and in a team environment.

·         Experience working in a rapidly changing technological environment.

Desired Qualifications:

·         Knowledge of grant funding agencies and participation in grant writing and oversight.

·         Experience with digital conversion for a variety of formats including audio and/or video.

·         Experience applying Dublin Core Metadata Elements and technical metadata for supporting long-term archiving.

·         Proficiency using FTP, VPN, shared drives and Microsoft Office Suite software, particularly Excel.

·         Experience working on digital library collections in an academic setting.

Additional Expectations of the Position:

·         Civil and Respectful Interactions:

Demonstrates respect for all members of the University community in the course of performing one’s duties and in response to administrators, supervisors, coworkers, and customers; constructively brings forward workplace concerns to coworkers and/or supervisor.

·         Diversity and Inclusion:

Welcomes the richness of talent from a diverse workforce and recognizes that diversity brings stimulation, challenge, and energy that contribute to a productive and effective workplace.

·         Leadership Accountability:

Represents the interests of the University and of unit leadership in the use of resources to meet service and productivity demands within unit goals and budgets; strives to promote continual process and quality improvement.

·         Learning and Professional Development:

Seeks opportunities to enhance one’s own professional knowledge, skills, and abilities as they relate to one’s current position and/or to prepare for potential future roles and overall career development.

Salary and appointment: Appointment will be made at the Librarian I level with a salary range of $43,000 to $46,000. Start date is negotiable. The University of Iowa offers an attractive package of benefits including 24 days of paid vacation per year, your choice between two retirement plans and two University of Iowa health insurance plans, dental insurance, pre-tax child and health care spending accounts, and additional options.

The University of Iowa Libraries: The University of Iowa library system consists of the Main Library, the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences and a number of branch libraries. The Libraries has more than 5 million volumes including thousands of electronic resources and coordinates the development and maintenance of the University’s locally-created open access digital resources including the Iowa Digital Library, featuring more the 440,000 digitized texts, images, and audio and video recordings, as well as Iowa Research Online, our institutional repository. Our Special Collections include over 200,000 rare books, ranging in age from the 15^th century to newly created artists’ books.

Library systems are built on a mix of open source, locally developed, hosted services, and vended applications primarily from Ex Libris, OCLC, and Microsoft. The University of Iowa is a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), ARL, OCLC, SPARC, CNI, CLIR, LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, and Portico. The Libraries provides a program of support for professional development activities and its staff members are actively engaged in national cooperative efforts.

The University and Iowa City: A major research and teaching institution, the University of Iowa offers internationally recognized programs in a diverse array of academic, medical, and artistic disciplines, from otolaryngology to fiction writing, printmaking to space science, hydraulic engineering to dance. The University consists of a faculty of 2,000 and a permanent staff of 13,000 serving 30,500 students, more than 40% of whom are from out of state and close to 10,000 of whom are registered in graduate and professional degree programs. Approximately 9% of the University’s faculty and staff and 10% of its student body are members of minority groups, and 8% of the students are from foreign countries.

Iowa City is a community of some 68,000 people (more than 150,000 live in the surrounding area) with excellent educational, recreational, and cultural advantages. It is consistently cited in the national media as a city with an excellent quality of life. The city is readily accessible via interstate highways and a major airport is only 30 minutes away. The community is growing in its diversity; within the Iowa City Community School District, 32.47% of the students are minority, with 16.22% identifying as African-American, 8.55% as Latino/Hispanic, 7.33% as Asian-American, and .37% as Native American during the 2010/11 school year.

Application Procedure: To apply for this position, please visit the University of Iowa Jobs@UIOWA website at http://jobs.uiowa.edu. To help facilitate your application process, note the requisition number 59834. Applications must be received by September 11, 2011.

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER. WOMEN AND MINORITIES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

For more information about the University of Iowa Libraries and community, please see http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/about/employment/