Purpose of Position:
Northern Kentucky University (NKU), as members of the Association of College and Research Libraries Diversity Alliance, seeks a dynamic, patron-focused, early-career librarian to participate in a 2-3-year diversity residency program and is a non-tenure track position. This program will provide a collaborative, supportive environment to allow the resident to gain the requisite skills and competencies required to thrive in academia. This position will also provide a unique opportunity for the resident to help assess how digital humanities are used on campus, research possible services that the library can support, and implement a new digital humanities program that will have lasting impact on NKU’s community (e.g. geospatial/mapping, publishing and document preparation, data analysis and visualization, interactive timelines). As part of the Digital Scholarship and Communication Services department, the resident is encouraged to bring their own interests, areas of expertise, and willingness to learn as they help develop these exciting new services.
The W. Frank Steely Library provides a wide range of library services to support the University’s commitment to its Success by Design strategic framework, which promotes student success by embracing inclusiveness, equity, global awareness, and academic needs of students and faculty in each academic college. Library faculty and staff have enhanced traditional services to better address 21st century information needs and are collaborative partners across campus. The library’s twenty faculty members and fourteen staff members are leading the implementation of NKU’s campus-wide Quality Enhancement Plan on Information Literacy and newly created digital repository, and offering an online Bachelor’s degree in library informatics.
NKU is a public comprehensive university located in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan area. The university delivers innovative, learner-centered education and engages in impactful scholarly and creative activities, all of which empower students for fulfilling careers and meaningful lives while contributing to the social and economic vitality of the region. NKU has almost 14,000 students, over 2,000 faculty and staff. It offers 79 undergraduate degree programs, master’s degrees in 21 disciplines, graduate certificates in 15 areas, two doctoral programs, a law degree, and in a partnership with the University of Kentucky and St. Elizabeth Hospital opened a medical school in the fall of 2019.
Additional Benefits
The university offers comprehensive benefits, including health coverage, life insurance, retirement plans and tuition waiver. In addition, this position will receive dedicated professional development funding annually, and candidates may take advantage of campus housing as part of a faculty-in-residence program. If selected candidate elects to participate in the optional faculty-in-residence program, housing will be provided at no cost in exchange for providing programming to students in residence halls. Examples of programming may include offering research help or facilitating an evening program about digital humanities in the dorm.
Primary Responsibilities:
· Partnering with students and faculty, identifies digital humanities tools, platforms, and resources to support on campus. Implements dynamic, in-person and virtual support for these tools.
· Collaborates with Education and Outreach Services to integrate digital humanities instruction in library-hosted workshops (in-person and virtual) and the classroom.
· Helps plan and participate in special events, workshops, or programs (for example, a digital scholarship lunch and learn or Zoom introduction to digital timelines).
· Advocates for sharing digital outputs (for example, publishing a digital project using an open license in NKU’s institutional repository) and advising on open research and reproducibility applications.
· With the Stego Studio Makerspace Coordinator, establishes and implements workflows to help library customers use the makerspace to create physical representations of their digital projects.
· Represents the library effectively and professionally at the University and in the local community, both in-person and virtually.
· Delivers and tracks research help services via consultation appointments, email, instant messaging, and walk-up reference desk hours.
· Participates in professional activities such as committee service, conference attendance, continuing education, and staff development.
· Performs other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
· Master’s degree from an ALA accredited library or information science program or an ALA approved foreign equivalent completed within or anticipated to be completed between May 2019 and May 2022.
· Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, including advocacy for historically underrepresented groups.
· Interest and/or experience in the use and application of at least one digital scholarship or digital humanities technology or method, including but not limited to: digital exhibits, multimodal publishing, textual analysis, network analysis, data management or visualization, geospatial mapping, etc.
· Excellent organizational, communication, and multitasking skills.
· Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work successfully in an intentionally collaborative environment with a broad range of people from culturally diverse backgrounds including colleagues, administrators, students, faculty, donors, and alumni.
· Experience with or desire to plan and facilitate workshops, community events, or library instruction sessions.
· Experience with or desire to provide research help to a variety of learners/disciplines.
Although this position will remain open until filled, review of candidates’ materials will begin on April 24 and best consideration will be gained for materials submitted prior to that date.
Any candidate who is offered this position will be required to go through a pre-employment criminal background check as mandated by state law.