Digitization Manager

Description

Requisition Number: JR00493
Division / Dept. / Unit:  Preservation/Digitization
Reports to: Head of Digitization

Work Schedule: 37.5 hours per week; Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

Link to the position on the Library’s website: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/about/thelibrary/employment/staff-opportunities/digitization-manager/

Job Summary

Under the Direction of the Head of Digitization, and in collaboration with other Library Units, the Digitization Manager oversees and directs the operations of the Preservation Department’s Digitization Unit to create digital collections that preserve and enhance access to the University of Chicago Library collections.

The Digitization Manager is responsible for all daily lab operations, workflows and activities to convert a wide range of paper-based and media collections to digital formats from general and special collections; oversees production for concurrent projects, providing quality assurance for all operations, and ensuring standards and best practices are followed; and plays a key role, working with the Head of Digitization, in developing procedures, designing new workflows, and identifying and testing tools and software to increase the Unit’s capabilities to address current and new needs.

Responsibilities

Performs the daily operations of the Digitization Unit: (50%):

• Plans and directs the work of multiple in-house and vendor projects and activities to meet departmental and Library goals and priorities
• Hires, trains, and supervises full-time, student, grant staff, and interns on all activities of materials preparation, image capture, creation and management of master and derivative files, and quality control
• Ensures that digital conversion of paper-based and media materials is accomplished following established standards for creation of digital preservation masters and local guidelines for ingest into preservation repositories and interface systems
• Develops project timelines and ensures annual production goals are met
• Monitors, evaluates and improves workflows and procedures for production efficiency and quality
• Develops and implements a quality assurance program for all Unit operations
• Creates training materials; provides and maintains technical and procedural documentation
• Performs and maintains workflows to share files with external repositories that support expanded access to users

Technical Development & Support: (30%):

• Provides basic technical support for the Unit’s imaging and processing equipment and software
• Identifies, tests and recommends useful commercial and open source software for image capture and file processing; implements new hardware and software into production workflows
• Develops methods and procedures, and works with digital library partners and developers to automate and improve activities and production workflows
• Incorporates databases, scripts and image processing utilities to enhance workflows
• Keeps abreast of digital initiatives, emerging standards, projects and activities on a regional, national and international level

Planning and Collaboration (20%):

• Plans and meets annual goals of the Digitization Unit
• Monitors and documents use of resources, compiles cost and production data and analyzes statistics for annual reports, budgets and planning purposes
• Compiles digital requirements, and provides cost and production estimates for specialty orders, new projects, and workflows for new services
• Collaborates with other departments and staff that support the complete life cycle for digital collections
• Collaborates with Preservation Department supervisors on preservation treatment actions for materials in digitization workflows
• Participates as a member of the Library’s Digital Collections Working Group

Other Duties As Assigned.

Qualifications

Competencies:

• Demonstrated ability to work with a wide range of digital library and metadata standards and best practices for creating digital objects from a variety of original formats, required
• Thorough knowledge of national standards and best practices for creating digital objects from a variety of paper-based original formats, required
• Strong organizational skills, including the ability to establish priorities and achieve goals, required
• Well-developed skill in organization and planning; analytical thinking and problem-solving demonstrated through work experience, required
• Ability to plan and direct project workflows in a complex production setting and meet timelines, required
• Ability to adapt to change, analyze and assess problems; take initiative to find creative solutions, required
• Excellent written, oral and interpersonal communication skills, required
• Demonstrated skill working independently and collaboratively in a complex environment, required
• Sensitivity to the handling issues of a wide variety of general and special collections library materials, required
• Ability to lift large and heavy books, required
• Knowledge of preservation issues in cultural institutions, preferred

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree, required

Experience:

• Demonstrated experience managing a process from design to completion, required
• Demonstrated supervisory experience directing technical staff, required
• Experience writing technical documentation, required
• Experience managing digital projects in an academic library, museum or commercial imaging environment, preferred
• Experience with digital preservation and curation practices and principles, preferred
• Experience using Microsoft Access to pull data from other databases and manipulate it, preferred

Technical Knowledge and Skills:

• Demonstrated expertise and technical knowledge in the creation and management of digital information including image capture, quality control, scanning hardware and software, digital file formats, and compression schemes, required
• Demonstrated competence in computer skills including Windows operating systems, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and other digital imaging software, including those that operate in a command line environment, required
• Knowledge of color calibration and color management systems, preferred
• Knowledge of standards and practices for conversion of media collections, preferred
• Knowledge of digital preservation metadata standards and descriptive metadata standards, preferred
• Knowledge of a scripting language, such as Python, preferred

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• Office environment
• Ability to handle rare and fragile materials of various sizes and formats in a safe and sensitive manner
• Ability to bend, crouch, or stoop
• Ability to lift and move up to 50lbs
• Ability to tolerate moderate levels of dust and odor
• Ability to hear, including making fine discriminations in sound
• Ability to see, including color, depth perception, or clarity; must be able to visually focus on print and electronic material for long periods
• Ability to feel, including perceiving size, shape, temperature, or texture
• Effective audio-visual discrimination and perception
• Ability to sit for 4 hours or more
• Ability to use computers extensively for 4 hours or more
• Ability to operate equipment necessary to perform job
• Ability to Use Standard Work Station Equipment
• Ability to Use Standard Office Equipment

Review of Applications will begin March 5, 2018.  Screening of applications will continue until the search is closed.

To Apply

To apply for this position, external candidates must submit an application and any other required materials through https://uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External. Internal candidates must apply by logging into Workday and selecting the Career worklet; for more information, please see How to Apply for a UChicago Job (Current Employee) QRG. Resumes sent via mail, fax, or email will not be considered. For more information, please see https://www.uchicago.edu/jobs/.

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Disabled/Veterans Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination. 

Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should contact University Shared Services through the Applicant Inquiry Form or call 773-702-5800.

About the Organization

The University of Chicago Library is a center of intense intellectual inquiry. It shares with the University an aspiration to be the most dynamic research and learning environment in the world, supporting research and teaching in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, law, business, and medicine. The library is an active participant in the activities and programs of the Ivy Plus and the Big Ten Academic Alliance Center for Library Initiatives, and embraces open sharing of collections and collaborative collection building. One of the world's largest research libraries, it houses over 12 million volumes in print and electronic format, 62 thousand linear feet of archives and manuscripts, and 153 terabytes of born-digital archives, digitized collections, and research data. Forty-five percent of the Library's collections are in languages other than English, supporting faculty research with a global impact and making the Library a mecca for international scholars. The Preservation Department supports the Library's mission to provide comprehensive resources and services in support of the research, teaching, and learning needs of the University community. The Department comprises 3 operational units – Binding and Shelf Preparation, and Conservation and Digitization Laboratories in the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, opened in 2011. Units serve all campus libraries, handling materials in both general and special collections, conserving collections for future generations, while providing worldwide access to digitized collections online.