Public Services Unit Supervisor: Professional Faculty / Manager-Librarian I
Special Collections and Archives Research Center
Oregon State University Libraries and Press
https://jobs.oregonstate.edu/hr/postings/79152
The Special Collections and Archives Research Center at Oregon State University Libraries seeks a service-oriented, user-focused Public Services Unit Supervisor with a strong commitment to access to lead our public services operations. Reporting to the Director of the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, the Public Services Unit Supervisor has primary responsibility for managing and coordinating all reading room and remote reference activities. In conjunction with department colleagues, this position provides effective research support, optimizes access systems, and proposes new services and workflows as appropriate.
The successful candidate will demonstrate ability for and commitment to providing responsive, personable, and expert public service. The Public Services Unit Supervisor will join a dynamic team of professionals dedicated to collaboratively advancing the Center's educational and access missions. Working closely with curators and other department staff, the Supervisor interacts positively and inclusively with students, faculty, and the public, guiding users in how to find, use, and evaluate relevant resources, explaining techniques, policies, and procedures, and empowering individuals to conduct archival research. The Supervisor is a professional faculty member in the Oregon State University Libraries and Press, developing and nurturing relationships with colleagues inside and outside the library, and participate in shared governance of OSULP and OSU.
The position supervises one Library Technician 3 classified position and a rotation of student assistants with public service duties. The position mobilizes these resources and others to establish a welcoming and secure environment, data-driven operations, and public service excellence in a lively special collections environment.
Position Duties:
Management: 70%
- Manage the SCARC Reading Room and its operations, including in-person reference services, research assistance, materials paging and delivery, materials circulation, safe handling, facilities, security, and statistics gathering
- Develop a desk staffing model that delivers highest quality service with available resources; serve on reference desk
- Manage remote reference operations in LibAnswers, including assigning queries to appropriate staff and student assistants, coordinating reproduction requests, ensuring reasonable turnaround times, checking response accuracy and completeness
- Create and maintain training materials and manuals for desk staff and student assistants and provide adequate training for consistent, courteous, and efficient patron service
- Communicate with patrons requesting permission for publication and use
- Coordinate, maintain, and analyze circulation, reference, and other use statistics; prepare quarterly and annual reports on public service operations
- Set and maintain department schedules for reading room and classroom use, reference coverage, and events
- Coordinate collection management tasks related to public services, including offsite storage retrieval, stacks maintenance and security, materials flow, and hold areas
- Assists with retrieval of collection materials via motorized vehicle from storage locations off site from the main campus
- In consultation with other staff, develop, maintain, and enforce informed and progressive policies related to materials usage and access to collections
- Build and maintain personal knowledge of SCARC collections to facilitate research
- Ensure excellent service, friendly reception, and positive research interactions for researchers of all skill levels using SCARC collections
- Build and foster collaborative relationships with OSULP departments and relevant campus units
- Represent SCARC in service on the Shared Integrated Library System (SILS) team
Supervision: 20%
- Supervise one Library Technician 3 position with public services and collection management duties
- Supervise a rotation of student assistants with public service duties
Service: 10%
- This position is regularly called upon to serve on search committees, and various Library committees, project teams, and task forces.
- Demonstrate collegiality by actively participating in the governance and decision-making undertaken by library faculty by participating in the Library Faculty Association.
- Participates in professional archival and library organizations and in collaborative activities within the OSU Libraries, in Oregon, the region, and nationally
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree
- 2-5 years experience providing effective and efficient public services in a special collections, archives, or cultural heritage environment, including using physical and digital collections to answer reference questions
- Minimum 2 recent years supervisory experience
- Currency with professional best practices and current standards for reference and access services in special collections settings, including a thorough understanding of privacy, confidentiality, copyright and use issues; ability to work with sensitive information with integrity and discretion
- Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team; commitment to fostering a collaborative and communicative work environment
- Demonstrated ability for data-driven decision making; working with spreadsheets and statistics reporting
- Positive attitude, flexibility, and enthusiasm for fostering public understanding of and access to cultural heritage collections
- Commitment to civility, diversity, equity, and inclusion in interactions, practice, and relationships
- Excellent oral communication, writing, and organizational skills, including the ability to problem-solve and enforce policies through diplomatic, adaptable, and pragmatic approaches
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited library school or equivalent experience
- Supervisory experience in a cultural heritage environment
- Knowledge of Ex Libris' Alma and Primo
- Thorough knowledge of library and archival standards and vocabularies, including EAD, DACS, MARC, RDA, LCSH, and the RBMS/SAA Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Service
- Familiarity with archival content management systems, such as Archon, Archivists' Toolkit, or ArchiveSpace
This position is designated as a critical or security-sensitive position; therefore, the incumbent must successfully complete a Criminal History Check and be determined to be position qualified as per OSU STANDARD 576-055-0000 et seq. Incumbents are required to self-report convictions and those in Youth Programs may have additional Criminal History Checks every 24 months. Offers of employment are contingent upon meeting all minimum qualifications including the Criminal History Check Requirement.
This position is not eligible for OSU's dual hire initiative; this position is not represented by a union.
OSU commits to inclusive excellence by advancing equity and diversity in all that we do. We are an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, and particularly encourage applications from members of historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, women, individuals with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ community members, and others who demonstrate the ability to help us achieve our vision of a diverse and inclusive community.
Salary, Rank, and Benefits:
Appointment Type: Administrative / Professional Faculty (non tenure track)
Class: Manager I - Library and Museum
Salary: $47,820--$81,372
Environment: The Special Collections and Archives Research Center is located on the 5th floor of The Valley Library, and features secure, climate-controlled storage, exhibit spaces, a lively reading room, dedicated classrooms, and professional digital production unit. SCARC faculty and staff work to maximize discoverability and use of our collections for a broad range of researchers, through teaching, expert public services, digitization, and more. SCARC stimulates and enriches the research and teaching endeavors of Oregon State University through primary sources. As part of the University's land grant mission, SCARC makes these resources available to the OSU community, Oregonians, and the larger community of scholars and independent researchers. As the repository for and steward of the Libraries' rare and unique materials, we build distinctive and unique collections in our signature areas: natural resources, the history of science, university history, and Oregon's multicultural communities; we are also home to the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives and the OSU Queer Archives. These collections encompass manuscripts, archives, rare books, oral histories, photographs, ephemera, audio/visual materials, electronic and born digital records.
To achieve this mission, the Special Collections and Archives Research Center:
- Provides unique opportunities for teaching and learning
- Facilitates discovery through online access to SCARC collections
- Provides responsive, personable, and expert public service
- Assists communities in collecting, managing, preserving, and making their histories accessible
- Promotes access to and preservation of SCARC collections by collaborating within the OSU Libraries, the University, and regional primary resource communities
- Engages high-achieving students through experiential learning opportunities
Oregon State University (OSU) celebrates its role as a top public research university and embraces its land grant (and sea, space, and sun grant!) status by pushing the frontiers of research and discovery and educating the citizens of Oregon and beyond. OSU's reputation for excellence attracts a student body (and faculty) that is diverse in many different ways. While OSU students predominantly hail from Oregon, over one third come from across the nation, and over ten percent come from around the globe. A quarter of the student body comes from US minority populations. Nearly half of new high school graduates attending OSU are high achievers, and nearly a quarter of all undergraduate students identify as first-generation college students. In pursuit of carrying out its educational and research missions, OSU is simultaneously right here and "out there" - at two campuses, a marine science center, via a highly-regarded online program, at thirty-five extension offices, and at fifteen experiment stations - making a difference in everyday lives. The beautiful 400-acre campus is in Corvallis, Oregon, which is routinely ranked one of the safest, smartest, greenest small cities in the nation. This year it was dubbed a top five Most Beautiful College Town and Best Small City for Business and Careers in the U.S. The city offers beautiful natural areas, an excellent food, beer, and wine scene, and vibrant arts and culture in a central location, near the coast, the mountains, and Portland.
OSU Libraries and Press (OSULP) is uniquely positioned at the heart of the university, and the collective efforts of its 100 faculty and staff reach across traditional boundaries between colleges and disciplines, students and faculty, the academy and the public. OSULP faculty use their professional experience and expertise to make contributions and build relationships across the OSU community and beyond. OSULP's resources - in the form of collections, spaces, services, faculty and staff - support learning, world-class research, and scholarship in all disciplines. OSULP provides employment and critical skill-building experiences for approximately 100 student employees, while OSULP faculty also offer numerous mentored experiential learning opportunities that give students a chance to deploy and develop their growing disciplinary knowledge in new and impactful ways.
In all of its activities, OSULP strives to support and grow OSU's diverse community and provide an inclusive environment where equity of access fosters equality of opportunity. All OSULP faculty are responsible for helping ensure that these goals are addressed within the unique context of their primary responsibilities.
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Tiah Edmunson-Morton
Instruction & Outreach Archivist, Brewing History Curator
Oregon State University
Corvallis OR
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