Digital Projects Librarian

Description

The Digital Projects Librarian will be a self-directed, production-oriented individual who will manage digitization projects, primarily grant digitization projects, and projects related to the grants for the University of Maryland Libraries. The candidate should be knowledgeable in digitization and digital project standards and best practices for file creation and metadata; file management; digital collections repositories; and digital preservation. The candidate will also be knowledgeable in project and budget management, and have an understanding of granting agencies and foundations, and their requirements for digitization projects. The Digital Projects Librarian will collaborate on writing grants in support of digitization projects, though the position is not contingent on grant funding. This position is intended to sustain or expand the Libraries’ ability to fund and support mass digitization projects in all formats.

The position will manage the fourth award of the Historic Maryland Newspapers initiative, a two-year project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and supported by the Library of Congress (LC) under the auspices of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Historic Maryland Newspapers will select, digitize, and contribute to the Library of Congress’ Chronicling of America collection approximately 100,000 pages from historically- and culturally-significant newspapers from across the state of Maryland. The candidate will perform outreach for this project. The UMD Libraries has been the Maryland state partner of the NDNP project since 2012. The position will also manage other digitization grant projects and other grant projects that support the major grant projects, such as smaller outreach or education projects, as they are awarded.

Reporting to the Manager, Digital Conversion and Media Reformatting (DCMR), the Digital Projects Librarian will collaborate with staff in Digital Conversion and Media Reformatting, Digital Programs and Initiatives, and many other collection departments in the Libraries. The Librarian may also collaborate with campus and other external partners, including the campus Division of Research, Office of Research Administration, who applies for grants on behalf of the campus. The candidate will provide technical guidance and support to collection managers and other project team members in pursuing and managing digitization grants, support the processes and workflows specified in projects, and manage the assets created until they are ingested and archived.

The Digital Projects Librarian will supervise hourly student employees and possible grant project staff, as required by future projects.