Head of Digital Scholarship Services, UT Libraries

Description

Purpose

The Head of Digital Scholarship Services leads the Digital Scholarship (DS) Team in support of evolving campus research needs around digital scholarship services. The team manages the Scholars Lab, a digital scholarship center that provides researchers with infrastructure, access to subject librarian and domain-situated expertise, and opportunities for learning, collaboration, and presentation. It is located within the Perry-Castañeda Library. Within the Scholars Lab, the DS Team supports campus research and digital scholarship needs and collaborates with other teams to provide related services around open scholarship, research data, the digital humanities, and other evolving aspects of research support.

UT Libraries defines digital scholarship broadly to encompass research needs across the disciplines including the digital humanities, emerging technology, and collections as data. This position is also responsible for service ownership of a portfolio of digital projects, which currently includes digital exhibits, transcription and translation via FromThePage, and a pilot project to support faculty digital humanities research in partnership with the Initiative for Digital Humanities. The portfolio of digital projects may change and evolve in response to library strategic priorities and user needs. The Head of DS monitors trends in digital scholarship and develops their skills in response to campus needs.

Responsibilities

• Provide Scholars Lab oversight, support, and assessment-informed enhancement. Provide strategic direction for the Scholars Lab initiative, build and maintain campus partnerships, and develop a sustainable service model. Collaborate with UTL colleagues to offer services in the Scholars Lab around open scholarship, research data services, digital humanities, and other evolving research needs. Leads the Scholars Lab Fellowship program. 

• Lead the Digital Scholarship Team to provide digital scholarship training and consultation services to researchers and students who are incorporating digital tools and methods in their research and classroom instruction. Supervise and mentor one librarian. May supervise student staff directly as needed. Collaborate with others to build and sustain a UT Libraries and campus-wide digital scholarship community of practice. 

• Digital project facilitation and service ownership, including monitoring and evaluating existing and emerging digital tools and related technologies. 

• Build skills to provide consultation and support for digital scholarship research methodologies, projects, and classroom use. 

• Pursue professional development opportunities and contribute to the work of the organization. 

• Other related functions as assigned. 

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in library science or equivalent, with four or more years of relevant experience.  A degree in a relevant field or a combination of education plus experience in a field with transferable skills may be substituted as appropriate.

• Domain expertise in digital scholarship, which may include: digital collections/archives, project management, natural language processing/text analysis, visualization, network analysis, and/or collections as data (digitization, OCR, metadata, transcription, etc.).

• Supervisory experience.

• Excellent interpersonal skills, a professional, team-oriented attitude, and the ability to establish positive and productive collaborations,

• Ability to communicate effectively, in person and in writing, including a demonstrated facility in conveying technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

• Enthusiasm for continual learning and professional development.

• Experience leading/managing projects or groups in a fast-paced, evolving work environment.

Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with one or more programming languages like Python, R, or JavaScript.

• Experience providing effective leadership in an academic library or similar setting.

• Experience managing a library space.

• Experience with library instruction, consultation, or reference services.

We want to emphasize that the preferred qualifications are not required and that we are committed to helping our future colleagues develop these preferred skills.

Salary Range

$70,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• May work around standard office and library conditions.

• Repetitive use of a keyboard at a workstation.

Work Shift

Between the hours of 7am and 6pm, Monday – Friday, as arranged with manager. ​

Required Materials (PDF Preferred)

• Resume/CV

• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor

• Letter of interest

During your application, you will be asked the following questions:

• Please describe your expertise in the field of digital scholarship including projects you have participated in or supported and whether you have any particular areas of specialization.

• Describe a project or group that you led. What was your role in the project, how did you navigate challenges that arose, and what was the ultimate result?

• Please give an example of when you collaborated with a team member to create or modify a workflow so the workflow could be more flexibly staffed and/or effectively managed.