Head of Technical Services
San Diego State University is a major public research institution offering bachelor’s degrees in 91 areas, master’s degrees in 78 areas, and doctorates in 22 areas. The university provides transformative experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom, for its 35,000 students. Students participate in research, international experiences, sustainability and entrepreneurship initiatives, and a broad range of student life and leadership opportunities. The university’s rich campus life features opportunities for students to participate in, and engage with, the creative and performing arts, a Division I athletics program, and the vibrant cultural life of the San Diego region. For more information, visit www.sdsu.edu.
SDSU is a large, diverse, urban university and Hispanic-Serving Institution with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence. Our campus community is diverse in many ways, including race, religion, color, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, pregnancy, medical condition, and covered veteran status. We strive to build and sustain a welcoming environment for all. SDSU is seeking applicants with demonstrated experience in and/or commitment to teaching and working effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds and members of underrepresented groups.
San Diego State University Library & Information Access seeks applications and nominations of dynamic, proactive, innovative, and service-oriented candidates for the position of Head of Technical Services. The successful candidate will be an enthusiastic, collegial, user-focused librarian who will be able to provide leadership for technical services and represents the department’s changing needs as we settle into a new consortial and local integrated library management system. This position will provide timely and strategic management of resource description and metadata activities to support the research, teaching, and learning needs of the university community. The incumbent will be responsible for the overall management and staff supervision of the division, including acquisitions, cataloging, physical processing, database and electronic resource maintenance, and processing of government publications. These units currently consist of 3 tenured librarians and 9 support staff. As a member of the Library faculty, this position will be actively involved in library governance activities and will provide expertise regarding innovations in information organization, discovery, and access.
This position will be appointed at the rank of Associate Librarian.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
The successful candidate will:
● Direct the bibliographic access to the library’s collection of 7 million physical items and 1 million online resources.
● Be responsible for planning, organizing, and managing activities to meet evolving trends in information organization, discovery, and access.
● Supervise technical operations in the library, including acquisition, processing and cataloging of all types of materials in any language and any format.
● Establish and evaluate existing policies and procedures, and set priorities in cataloging and processing collaboratively with technical services librarians; and in consultation with collection management, public service librarians, and with library administration.
● Provide training, evaluation, and supervision of technical services paraprofessional staff.
● Ensure compliance with national and local standards such as MARC21, RDA, AACR2, LCSH, LCCS, OCLC, LC/PCC cataloging practices, DC, VRA, and other appropriate cataloging and metadata standards.
● Participate in the development of CSU policies and maintenance of efficient workflows resulting from implementation of a new consortial and local system.
● Perform original cataloging as needed, depending on expertise with subjects and/or formats.
● Represent the Library in regional, national, and international cooperative programs concerning technical services work.
● Keep abreast of current standards, emerging technologies (such as Bibframe and linked data), and best practices, and implement as appropriate to more effectively support the organization of and access to library resources.
● Collaborate with colleagues across the Library to support growing metadata and digital collection initiatives.
● Serve as cataloging technical adviser on the Library’s new discovery tools.
● Work with staff and faculty to insure the application of high quality metadata standards and efficient workflow for the new Institutional Repository (IR).
● Develop assessment and benchmark strategies, maintain statistics, and compile narrative and statistical reports to support short & long-term planning for the department and Library.
● Other duties as needed.
Required Qualifications
● ALA-accredited master’s degree or equivalent foreign degree.
● Minimum of 5 years of experience in original cataloging of materials in a variety of formats.
● Minimum of 3 years successful experience supervising a unit of technical services paraprofessionals.
● Successful database maintenance experience in a university research library.
● Demonstrated experience managing the workflow of one or more of the following technical services units: digitization, metadata, monographic cataloging, serials cataloging, or electronic resources.
● Substantial and successful working experience with and excellent knowledge of cataloging standards, tools, and resources such as RDA, AACR2, LCSH, LCCS, ClassWeb, Cataloger’s Desktop, MARC EDIT, FRBR, MARC21 and other metadata schemes (e.g. Dublin Core or MODS)
● Working knowledge of a current electronic resource management system.
● Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to construct clear documentation.
● Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, particularly the ability to explain complex concepts to a wide variety of users in individual and group settings.
● Demonstrated successful ability to take initiative, prioritize work, coordinate workflow, and lead a team.
● Demonstrated successful experience in developing, introducing and managing innovative projects, services and programs.
● Demonstrated successful organizational, analytical, project management, and problem solving skills.
● Demonstrated commitment for working in a team environment with diverse staff.
● Ability to maintain cooperative working relationships with administrators, staff, and faculty.
● Professional service experience commensurate with our rank of Associate Librarian with a record of scholarly contributions and achievements in the profession.
● Potential for meeting our requirements for tenure and promotion based on library service, professional growth, and service to the University and community.
Desired Qualifications
● Experience designing and deploying training programs for staff
● Experience with LC-PCC, BIBCO, NACO, and CONSER cataloging policy and cataloging guidelines.
● Working knowledge of a second language, preferably Spanish.
● Successful grant writing experience.
This is a full-time, twelve-month, tenure track faculty position. Tenure is dependent upon continuing high standards in library service effectiveness, professional growth and development, and service to the University and community.
This position will be ranked at Associate Librarian. Salary commensurate with experience.
Excellent benefits, including medical, dental, and vision plans, as well as 24 vacation days per year.
Review will begin immediately. Applications will be accepted until position is filled. Preference will be given to applications received by March 24, 2017. Applicants must apply via Interfolio at https://apply.interfolio.com/40899 submitting the following documents: Cover Letter, Curriculum Vitae, applicant statement outlining their commitment to diversity within the context of technical services, and contact information for three professional references.
Anticipated start date is August 2017
The person holding this position is considered a “mandated reporter” under the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and is required to comply with the requirements set forth in CSU Executive Order 1083 as a condition of employment.
A background check (including a criminal records check) must be completed satisfactorily before any candidate can be offered a position with the CSU. Failure to satisfactorily complete the background check may affect the application status of applicants or continued employment of current CSU employees who apply for the position.
San Diego State University is a Title IX, equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against persons on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and expression, marital status, age, disability, pregnancy, medical condition, or covered veteran status.