Skip to main content

Head of Life & Health Sciences Division - Library

We are no longer accepting applications for this recruitment. Browse open recruitments

Position overview

Position title: Librarian, Career Status or Potential Career Status
Salary range: $90,525-$118,160 -- The posted UC academic salary scales (https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/compensation/2022-23-academic-salary-scales.html) set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step at appointment. See the following table(s) for the salary scale(s) for this position [https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2022-23/july-2022-salary-scales/t26-a.pdf]. ‘Off-scale salaries’ and other components of pay, which would yield compensation that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions.
Percent time: 100%
Anticipated start: July 1, 2023
Position duration: Career Position, indefinite end date

Position description

The University of California, Berkeley seeks a collaborative, service-oriented librarian with demonstrated management, public service, and collection development experience to advance the Library's engagement with research and teaching in support of the life and health sciences.

The Environment

The UC Berkeley Library is an internationally renowned teaching and research facility at one of the nation's premier public universities. A highly diverse and intellectually rich environment, Berkeley serves a campus community of 30,000 undergraduate students, over 11,000 graduate students, and 1,500 faculty. With a collection of more than 13 million volumes and a collections budget of over $15 million, the Library offers extensive collections in all formats and robust services to connect users with those collections and build their related research skills.

The Library's Life & Health Sciences Division -- based in the Marian Koshland Bioscience, Natural Resources & Public Health Library -- is comprised of librarians, library career staff, and student library employees who together support the teaching, learning, and research needs of students and faculty of the College of Natural Resources, School of Optometry, School of Public Health, and College of Letters & Science’s Biological Sciences Division, as well as broader communities of scholars.

Responsibilities

The Head of the Life & Health Sciences Division provides leadership for enhancing and evolving the collections, operations, and user-centered services across the division. This position directly supervises the librarians and a chief operations manager who supervises the career library staff in the division. The division head works collaboratively with division staff to assess strengths and weaknesses in collections and services, and determine priorities and innovations that align with the academic mission of the university.

Mindful of current trends related to research, data, and scholarly communications in life and health science fields, the division head will work in partnership with colleagues in the Library, across campus, and at other institutions to play a guiding role in initiatives that support the current and future research needs of faculty and students. Examples of such initiatives could include collaborative collection development agreements, digitization projects, and donor engagement.

The position reports to the Senior Associate University Librarian for Educational Initiatives & User Services, with a dotted line to the Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, and is a member of the library-wide management team. The management team works collaboratively to guide and coordinate the strategic directions, programs, services, collections, facilities, and policies associated with public service units of the UC Berkeley Library. The division head serves as the collection fund group coordinator for life and health science librarians, providing oversight of substantial collections, endowments, gifts, and various budgets. This position works with colleagues to develop collection policies and strategies for the benefit of the Library overall.

Our organization continues to evolve in the rapidly changing world of higher education and information resources and services, and thus it is essential that the division head be adaptable, forward-looking, and a good change-management leader. To be an effective manager, the Head will be a fair, progressive leader to Library staff; lead department-wide and library-wide discussions; aid in creating and communicating Library policies; manage personnel and financial matters; contribute to department-wide and library-wide priority setting and project management; encourage ongoing staff development; and foster an environment of collaboration, creative thinking, and continuous improvement.

In accordance with their experience and interests, the division head will engage in activities akin to other librarians in the division: providing research consultations for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students; developing guides and web pages to facilitate user access to resources; offering orientations and instructional seminars; serving as a liaison to an academic department or program in the life and health sciences portfolio; selecting materials in all formats; contributing to reference services for the sciences; and staying abreast of scholarly communication issues. A significant portion of collection development is coordinated through a number of consortial agreements with libraries in the University of California system, Stanford University, and national organizations. The division head collaborates with the Life and Health Sciences Division selectors and Sciences Council colleagues to identify relevant online resources to purchase through campus funds or group agreements negotiated by the California Digital Library and the Center for Research Libraries.

UC Berkeley librarians are expected to participate in library-wide planning and governance, and work effectively in a shared decision-making environment. Advancement is partially based upon professional contributions beyond the primary assignment; the successful candidate will show evidence or promise of such contributions to the Library, campus, UC System, and profession.

The UC Berkeley Library is committed to supporting and encouraging a multicultural environment and seeks candidates who can make positive and imaginative contributions in a context of ethnic and cultural diversity.

Librarians are entitled to appropriate professional development leave, vacation leave, sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

Advanced degree

Additional qualifications (required at time of start)

Minimum of six years library experience

Preferred qualifications
  • Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited institution or equivalent international degree
  • Knowledge of the role of the library in supporting life and health scientists across the research lifecycle
  • Minimum of three years experience supervising and/or leading librarians and career staff
  • Minimum of three years experience providing reference and instructional services related to the sciences in an academic, medical, or research library
  • Minimum of three years experience participating in collection development and effectively managing collection funds in an academic, medical, or research library
  • Management experience in an academic library environment
  • Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion
  • Demonstrated effectiveness working in a highly-collaborative, matrixed environment
  • Experience providing providing highly responsive public service in a library
  • Experience effectively leading organizational change
  • Demonstrated project management skills
  • Demonstrated oral communication skills
  • Demonstrated written communication skills

Application Requirements

Document requirements
  • Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

  • Cover Letter

  • Statement on Contributions to Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Statement on your contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, including information about your understanding of these topics, your record of activities to date, and your specific plans and goals for advancing equity and inclusion if hired at Berkeley (for additional information go to https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity).

Reference requirements
  • 3 required (contact information only)
Apply link: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF03808

Help contact: hrd-library@berkeley.edu

About UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The excellence of the institution requires an environment in which the diverse community of faculty, students, and staff are welcome and included. Successful candidates will demonstrate knowledge and skill related to ensuring equity and inclusion in the activities of their academic position (e.g., teaching, research, and service, as applicable).

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct

In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality prior to submitting their letter.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

Job location

Berkeley, CA