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Position Description

The University of California, Berkeley is seeking a creative, self-motivated, user-oriented, and collaborative Bancroft Digital Collections and Metadata Librarian to join the technical services team at The Bancroft Library. Under the direction of the Associate Director and Head of Bancroft Technical Services and in collaboration with archivists, curators, the UC Berkeley Library Digital Lifecycle Program (DLP), Library IT, Office of Scholarly Communication Services, and other stakeholders, the Bancroft Digital Collections and Metadata Librarian processes special collections materials for digital capture/reformatting, data extraction, file management, online publication, and discovery. They are involved in the creation and maintenance of metadata for digitized and born-digital special collection resources and contribute to department-level planning and development of metadata best practice guidelines, workflows, policies, and procedures in alignment with Library-wide frameworks and practices. They manage multiple projects in collaboration with partners within and outside of the library, share their work broadly, participate in library and UC-wide activities and working groups, and train and supervise student assistants. This highly collaborative position plays a critical role in cultivating strong cross-departmental relationships with Bancroft Library’s various stakeholders and liaises with key partners throughout the Library.

The Environment

The UC Berkeley Library is an internationally renowned research and teaching facility at the nation's premier public university. A highly diverse and intellectually rich environment, Berkeley serves a campus community of 30,574 undergraduate students, 11,336 graduate students, and 1,525 faculty. The Library comprises 20 campus libraries, including the Doe/Moffitt Libraries, The Bancroft Library, the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, and numerous subject specialty libraries. With a collection of more than 12 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 the collections and build their research skills. Discover more about our collections and services at the UC Berkeley Library website.

The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the largest and most heavily used libraries of rare materials in the West. Its holdings include more than 800,000 volumes, 210 million manuscript items, 9 million photographs and other pictorial materials, 86,000 microforms, 9.4 million digital files, and 25,000 maps, as well as numerous other categories of unique material. The two largest collections are the Bancroft Collection of Western and Latin Americana and the Rare Books Collection. The archival and rare book materials of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life are also part of the Bancroft holdings. The Bancroft Library is home to three research groups: the Oral History Center (formerly the Regional Oral History Office), the Mark Twain Papers, and the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri. The Bancroft Library is an active center of teaching and research. Supporting the programs of about 30 campus departments annually, it mounts a regular series of public exhibitions, roundtable lectures, and open houses. For additional information, please visit the Bancroft Library website.

Responsibilities

The Bancroft Digital Collections and Metadata Librarian will be responsible for helping Bancroft Library develop and set strategies for prioritization and selection of special collections for digitization, born digital archives, and publishing. They will work with special collections to prepare them for capture, reformatting, processing, and data extraction, and will create metadata for special collections materials in a variety of formats to support content and collection management, online publication, discovery, and preservation of digital collections at the University of California, Berkeley within the Technical Services Division of The Bancroft Library.

• Processing special collections in a range of formats and of varying sizes for digital capture/reformatting, data extraction, file management, online publication, and discovery.
• Creation and maintenance of descriptive, administrative, structural, and preservation metadata for digital special collection resources to support ingest, processing, publication, revision, and migration of content and metadata in bibliographic, archival, born digital, and digital asset management and discovery systems (the UC Berkeley Library catalog, ArchivesSpace, and the UC Berkeley Digital Collections system).
• Contributing to department-level planning and development of internal best practice guidelines, workflows, policies, and procedures, in line with guidelines and initiatives across the library.
• Project management of multiple digital projects in collaboration with partners within and outside of the library, including working closely with curators, archivists, Library IT, business office and preservation staff, external vendors, and other stakeholders.
• Keeping abreast of digital, born digital, data, archival, and special collection standards and practices, applying new guidelines, interpretations, and techniques as appropriate.
• Participation in regular departmental activities, library-wide working groups, and relevant UC-wide activities.
• Contributing to communications regarding digital initiatives, work, and project reporting.
• Training and supervising student assistants.
• Other duties as assigned.

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.

UC professional librarians are academic appointees and are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, the University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This position is in the bargaining unit. Librarians are entitled to appropriate professional development leave, vacation leave, sick leave, and all other benefits granted 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.

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.

Please refer to the University of California’s Affirmative Action Policy and the University of California’s Anti-Discrimination Policy.

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.