Librarian Assistant Professor/Librarian Associate Professor (Digital Stewardship Librarian)
University of Miami Libraries
The University of Miami Libraries seeks a collaborative, innovative, and creative professional to join us as Digital Stewardship Librarian—a role which will bridge the work of preserving our unique cultural heritage collections with making them discoverable and usable. Reporting to the Head of Digital Initiatives, the Digital Stewardship Librarian will partner closely with colleagues in Digital Initiatives, Manuscripts and Archives Management, Distinctive Collections, Technical Services, Library Information Technology, Preservation Strategies, Learning and Research Services, and other library units. They will develop and implement curation practices for UML’s distinctive born-digital and digitized collections throughout their lifecycle, including ingestion, metadata creation, transfer to preservation repositories, format migrations for obsolete media, and ongoing storage monitoring, ensuring the long-term integrity and stewardship of digital archival materials. The Digital Stewardship Librarian will also partner with UM’s subject-specialty libraries to advise and assist with the curation of their digital holdings, including the Architecture Research Center, the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Library, the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library, the Judi Prokop Newman Information Resource Center (Business Library), and the Louis Calder Memorial Library (Medical Library). The Digital Stewardship Librarian will transform preservation into access by appraising, describing, and making born-digital and digitized materials available through discovery platforms, including CONTENTdm. The Digital Stewardship Librarian will work collaboratively and communicate across departments to integrate preservation workflows with user-focused access strategies.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Performance
- Coordinate cross-departmental initiatives by aligning the priorities, workflows, and expertise of Digital Initiatives, Manuscripts and Archives Management, Distinctive Collections, Learning and Research Services, Technical Services, and other units to deliver an integrated preservation-to-access pipeline.
- Bridge preservation and access by ensuring that born-digital curation guidelines, workflows, and technologies not only safeguard assets long-term but also make them discoverable and usable.
- Advise and assist with curation of digital special collections materials held by subject-specialty libraries, including the Architecture Research Center, the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Library, the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library, the Judi Prokop Newman Information Resource Center (Business Library), and the Louis Calder Memorial Library (Medical Library).
- In collaboration with Technical Services and the Head of Digital Initiatives, manages making born-digital and digitized collections accessible through discovery platforms, including CONTENTdm.
- In collaboration with Technical Services and the Head of Digital Initiatives, manages and tracks the progress of born-digital and digitized digital collections projects, including digital transfer, copyright clearance, and metadata creation, coordinating ingests of content and creation of collection pages, managing statistics, and coordinating with stakeholders for digital collections visibility and promotion.
- Apply professional curation standards (national and international) to develop guidelines, implement policies, and build repeatable workflows for the appraisal, accessioning, and processing of born-digital archival content with a focus on access.
- Advise on collection strategies by working with curators and donors to guide the transfer, appraisal, and description of born-digital manuscripts, personal papers, and records—ensuring legal, ethical, and technical requirements are met.
- Manage digital asset lifecycles including metadata creation, ingestion, transfer to preservation repositories (e.g., APTrust), format migrations for obsolete media, and ongoing storage monitoring.
- Manage selected web archiving projects by working with curators to select sites, configuring and monitoring crawls, performing quality control checks, and creating descriptive metadata.
- Recommend and implement digital forensics tools to support secure capture, evaluation (e.g., identifying sensitive or confidential information), and, when necessary, redaction or access-restriction workflows in consultation with stakeholders.
- Evaluate and pilot emerging technologies by collaborating with Digital Initiatives, Library Information Technology, and Technical Services to improve digital management, preservation, and discovery & access tools.
- Provide training and communication through reports, presentations, and hands-on workshops to library staff on born-digital processing and digital preservation practices, tools, and access workflows.
- Stays abreast of current trends and best practices in digital archiving, digital preservation, digitization, and related areas.
Service
- Serves on Library and University committees, task forces, and teams as appropriate.
- Networks, collaborates and actively participates in local, regional, national, or international organizations.
Represents and promotes the University of Miami Libraries in professional organizations, as appropriate.
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Other responsibilities may include
- Assists with the development and preparation of exhibitions and events.
- Assists with project management for digitization outsourced to a vendor.
- Assists with encouraging use of digital collections through promotional activities.
- May serve as project manager for grant projects with a focus on digitization and/or born digital collections.
- Participates in the formulation, writing, and implementation of grants.
- May supervise the work of student employees and interns.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required
- Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited program or foreign equivalent, or combination of relevant advanced degree and work experience.
- One year of demonstrated experience working in archives or special collections, preferably with digital projects.
- Experience with project planning, management, and completion.
- Demonstrated knowledge of technologies, tools, and strategies developed or adopted by the archival community for processing and managing born-digital archives.
- Demonstrated interpersonal skills with the ability to work independently and collaboratively.
Demonstrated effective oral, written, and analytical communication skills.
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Preferred
- A high degree of technical facility and the demonstrated ability to learn new technical skills.
- Ability to articulate technical concepts and requirements to a variety of audiences.
- Demonstrated knowledge of archival appraisal, preservation, arrangement, description, and access theories and procedures.
- Knowledge of copyright, donor restrictions, and permissions related to providing access to digitized and born-digital material.
- Experience working with at least one archival management software such as AtoM, ArchivesSpace, etc.
- Experience working with digital collection management or repository platforms such as CONTENTdm, TIND, Islandora, DSpace, Alma Digital, Samvera-based platforms, etc.
- Experience with digital preservation standards and best practices, such as NDSA’s Levels of Digital Preservation, the PREMIS metadata standard, and recommended file formats for digital preservation.
The University of Miami is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants and employees are protected from discrimination based on certain categories protected by Federal law.
Job Status:
Full time
Employee Type:
Faculty
