Assistant Director for Preservation Reformatting and Metadata

Columbia University Libraries seeks an experienced and innovative professional as the Assistant Director for Preservation Reformatting and Metadata to provide knowledge and expertise in the area of digitization for purposes of both access and long term preservation and in support of scholarship. The Assistant Director participates actively in preservation programs/projects at every step, from planning to delivery. This role is central to the continued stewardship and digitization of rich cultural materials held by Columbia. The Assistant Director’s active role in planning and implementing digital projects and reprography services directly serve numerous faculty members, students, and scholars who require digitization of the Libraries' collections for their research and teaching needs.

Through an active role in all stages of the digitization process, the Assistant Director provides students, faculty members, and scholars throughout the world with digital access—often on demand—to Columbia's rich collections. The delivery of these digital materials support the Libraries Strategic Initiatives of advancing knowledge, inspiring inquiry, and catalyzing discovery. In addition, the provision of these materials allows for disintermediated access to many of our collections, which in turn, allows for increased accessibility and inclusion.

We encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, identities, and abilities to apply for this unique opportunity to become a part of our evolving Libraries and University community. Columbia University Libraries is a globally-recognized academic research library system, serving one of the world’s most important centers of research and learning in the most exciting and dynamic city in the world. Talented Libraries staff build, sustain, and make discoverable collections that transcend traditional boundaries of format and domain, keeping pace with a dynamic and rapidly evolving information environment and creating opportunities for users to encounter 4,000 years of human thought.

Our decisions are informed by new curricula developed to meet the needs of a more diverse student body, new and emerging areas of research being conducted by a broad spectrum of researchers, including graduate students and newly-hired faculty, as well as by perspectives from the diminished or entirely lost voices of historically oppressed, marginalized, and underserved populations and communities. As an organization, the Libraries provides a supportive, connected environment where every employee’s perspective is valued and every employee is encouraged to grow. All staff members have an impact on Columbia’s mission to advance knowledge at the highest levels and make the results of research accessible to the world.

Columbia University has a longstanding commitment to diversity rooted in values of inclusion and social justice, a commitment reflected in the curriculum and throughout University life. Columbia welcomes applications from candidates who share these values and who will foster their contribution to the University's educational mission. We invite applicants who have demonstrated creative approaches to empowering and mentoring staff, leading projects, solving problems, and developing user-centric programs, services, or collections. We offer salary and benefits commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Library Science or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Formal study and/or demonstrated experience working with metadata and knowledge of current standards and best practices.
• Formal study of digitization of cultural materials, digital preservation and/or digital curation
• Direct experience in a digitization and/or reformatting operation or other relevant preservation experience and demonstrated comfort working with digital files.
• Knowledge of current metadata standards, preservation metadata standards, and bibliographic control of microforms.
• Knowledge and understanding of current copyright law and how it applies to digitization and access.
• Knowledge and understanding of current standards for digital preservation.
• Strong organizational and management skills, along with thorough knowledge of digital and other reformatting technologies, intellectual control, and metadata.
• Demonstrated excellence in leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to and support for an inclusive environment for staff and library users. Ability to build and motivate a team through change, with a strong commitment to fostering growth and development of others.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Formal study of preservation highly desirable.
• Knowledge of a foreign language and ability to handle bibliographic records in a variety of languages.
• Knowledge of current preservation trends, particularly regarding preservation of digital objects as well as other media types.
• Supervisory experience in a large, academic library is highly
• Cataloging and/or metadata creation experience within a library and/or archives setting.

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