Digital Preservation Librarian

Description

Located in the scenic Mid-Hudson Valley, Vassar College is a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Vassar is strongly committed to fostering a community that reflects the values of a liberal arts education and to promoting an environment of equality, inclusion and respect for difference. Vassar College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer, and applications from members of historically underrepresented groups are especially encouraged.

Vassar College is a smoke-free, tobacco-free campus.  

The Vassar College Libraries seek a dynamic, collaborative, and innovative library professional for the position of Digital Preservation Librarian. This position is an excellent opportunity to work within a team to develop and maintain tools, systems, and applications that facilitate access and long-term preservation to digitized and born-digital materials in the library's care. This position offers the opportunity to work alongside faculty members, students, librarians, and IT colleagues across campus and within open-source communities to support digital scholarship and build a sustainable and proactive digital preservation program.

As Digital Preservation Librarian you will:

• Work with the Digital Scholarship and Technology Services team on various technology projects throughout the Libraries and the College.
• In collaboration with the DS&T team, ensure a secure and robust digital library ecosystem by creating and maintaining policies, procedures, workflows, and strategies related to digital preservation projects and practices.
• Provide support for the continual improvement of the digital repository system, Islandora. This includes working directly with objects and metadata while improving functionality.
• Preserve and provide access to web-based content; prepare born-digital materials for preservation ingest, stabilization and storage; collaborate with the Digital Archivist to survey, appraise, and ensure proper transfer of born-digital holdings; and work with individuals and departments on faculty digital projects.
• Advance digital preservation librarianship on campus at both the strategic and project level through collaboration with library, faculty, students, and CIS colleagues, including helping to develop initiatives, writing digital preservation plans for grants, advising and working on digital scholarship projects, teaching workshops, and responding to inquiries.
• Recommend and introduce new and innovative tools for digital scholarship and preservation throughout the Libraries and the College while adhering to best practices.
• Further Vassar College's role as a leader in both academic and community spheres by serving on inter-collegial and regional library groups in a technical advisory role.
• Be professionally active

The ideal candidate will be a technology-savvy collaborator, working within a team that will consider all stages of the digital life cycle, from the point of capture through to preservation. A librarian aware of the trends and issues (technological and otherwise) surrounding digital preservation, digital scholarship, repositories, and research, and excited by the challenges they bring. A data and metadata enthusiast, understanding and enjoying the nuances of each to provide the best resources and digital scholarship possible and an excellent communicator that enjoys collaboration and partnerships.

Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Library and Information Science, or, an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience writing web applications with commonly used digital library coding languages preferred (e.g., Ruby, PHP, MySQL, XML, or Python).
• Experience working with common digital preservation applications and tools preferred (e.g., BitCurator, Bagit, Fixity, & Archive-it).
• Experience with Drupal, WordPress, or similar open-source content management system preferred.
• Experience with the Fedora Commons repository system and access layers preferred (e.g., Islandora, Samvera).
• Familiarity with data and metadata standards, especially as they relate to digital scholarship or digital libraries.
• Ability to work with a variety of different departments within the libraries and the College.
• Consistent accuracy and attention to detail while maintaining a high level of productivity.
• Ability to work both collegially and independently
• Competence and sensitivity in working at a college in which students are broadly diverse with regard to many facets of identity, including but not limited to gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and religion.
• Occasional travel to represent Vassar College Libraries and participate in professional organizations, when conditions allow.  

To complete your application, you will be required to attach your resume, cover letter, and contact information for three professional references (Word or PDF format required for all attachments). Review of applications will begin immediately. This position will remain open until filled.