Assistant Director for Collections Management

The Colby College Libraries seek a dynamic, engaged, innovative and enthusiastic individual for the position of Assistant Director for Collections Management. The Assistant Director for Collections Management leads, administers and coordinates the operations of the Collections Management Group including Resource Sharing, Acquisitions, Serials, E-Resources, Cataloging/Metadata, Storage Facility and Stacks Maintenance, and Collection Development. Immediate responsibilities involve day-to-day operational duties combined with establishing group strategic priorities, optimizing departmental workflows and group organization. 

This position provides leadership and innovation for the department while managing human, financial, and other resources to ensure efficient operations. He/she supervises a staff of 5 FTE.  This position reports directly to the Director of Libraries and is a member of the Libraries’ Leadership Team which, along with the Director of Libraries,  provides vision in moving the Libraries forward to best serve the research and scholarship needs of our students and faculty. The Assistant Director for Collections Management leads the Libraries’ efforts to purchase, describe, and organize the Libraries’ main collections.

Position Responsibilities:

• Create the strategic direction, establish priorities and oversee operations of the Collections Management group.
• Oversee the management of a $2.2 million Libraries’ materials budget.
• Manage all aspects of e-resource acquisitions and access.
• Administer OCLC functions and shelf-ready processes, including Promptcat Profiles and local and consortial approval plans.
• Prepare statistical reports on the Libraries’ materials budget and work with the Scholarly Resources and Services group on collection assessment projects, as necessary.
• Analyze procedures and workflow to maximize Libraries’ resources and provide efficient access to materials.
• Assume a leadership role in the CBB Consortium, serve on committees and work collaboratively with our collection partners, Bates and Bowdoin Colleges, to build a joint collection.
• Monitor national trends and advances in resource sharing, technical services, e-resources, and collection management and evaluate the potential application of these initiatives to the Libraries’ services.
• Hire, train, supervise, and evaluate staff.
• Conduct regular meetings with staff to coordinate departmental activities and communicate administrative policy and updates.
• Identify training needs for the group and recommend or provide training to meet those needs.

The Assistant Director for Collections Management participates in general administrative decision making, library management, strategic planning, and priority setting. Librarians are faculty without rank and are expected to contribute to creative, scholarly, and professional activities, and to participate in library-wide and campus-wide service.

Required Qualifications

• ALA accredited MLIS or MLS degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible administrative experience in an academic library with demonstrated competency in collection management and development.
• Ability to manage multiple department operations in a changing environment.
• Experience with an integrated library system (preferably Innovative Interfaces).
• Strong knowledge of all aspects of electronic resources management, including licensing, knowledge base management, link resolver technology, vendor records, e-book acquisitions, and patron driven acquisitions.
• Experience managing a budget in a complex acquisitions setting.
• Experience using spreadsheets and other data analysis tools.
• Ability to analyze technical services workflows and implement service improvements in light of local and national library trends; demonstrated experience solving complex technical services problems.
• Experience with negotiating licensing and pricing for digital collections and services
• Working knowledge of OCLC cataloging services.
• Outstanding interpersonal, written and oral communications skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively and collegially in a dynamic, complex and rapidly evolving environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with state, consortial, or regional shared-print initiatives.
• Experience working with consortial partners.
• Experience with resource sharing (RAPID, ILLiad).
• Familiarity with RDA and emerging metadata standards.

The Colby College Libraries are “central to scholarship” and a key part of the Colby academic program. There are three libraries, a new state of the art storage facility, a staff of 12 professional librarians, 15 support staff, and more than 75 student employees. A significant reorganization in 2012 resulted in the Libraries being poised for transformational change in the provision of services, collections, and instruction. Bates and Bowdoin Colleges are key partners in building a shared collection and MaineCat, NExpress, and Rapid are used to facilitate resource sharing.

The Colby Libraries is a member of the Oberlin Group, the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), the Council of Libraries and Information Resources (CLIR), the Hathi Trust, the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC), the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and the Maine Shared Collections Cooperative shared print project.

Applicants should send the following electronically in PDF format to Stephanie Frost (sjfrost@colby.edu).

• a cover letter
• curriculum vitae
• statement of philosophy on collections management and library service
• graduate transcripts, and
• three letters of recommendation

Position open until filled. Priority given to applications received by October 7th

Preferred start date: January 1, 2014 

Colby College is committed to equality and diversity and is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage inquiries from candidates who will contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our college. Colby College does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, ancestry or national origin, or age in employment or in our educational programs. For more information about the College, please visit our website: www.colby.edu