Recruit

POSITION DESCRIPTION
The Director and Assistant University Librarian will be a knowledgeable thought leader and respected figure in the field of East Asian scholarship. The incumbent will have substantial experience in leading teams and a dedication to providing excellent service to library users. The incumbent will play a vital role in advancing the Library’s use of emerging technologies, including generative AI technologies, while maintaining the strength of the traditional collections held at EAL. The Director will serve as the Library’s representative on campus, national, and international gatherings and initiatives to support East Asian Libraries and academic programs in East Asian Studies.

In a breathtaking building built in 2008, the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley, stewards a vast collection of research materials in East Asian languages. The EAL provides research support for faculty and student researchers in all fields of the humanities and the social sciences, and in the professional disciplines that focus on East Asia. The Library is crucial to the teaching and research of one of the largest and most distinguished groups of East Asian scholars in North America.

The East Asian Library holds more than 1.2 million print volumes, more than 1 million e-books, and maintains nearly 2,000 print serial subscriptions and over 10,000 electronic serial subscriptions in the languages of China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Mongolia, and Manchuria. Noteworthy special collections include the Asami collection of 4,000 volumes of classical Korean imprints; a distinguished collection of rare Chinese classical materials in early editions; over 18,000 Japanese imprints of the Edo period from the Mitsui Library; the Murakami collection of 8,850 volumes of Meiji belles lettres (mostly first editions); over 20,000 Chinese rubbings of inscriptions on stone and bronze; and 2,500 early woodblock-printed Japanese maps. Recent additions to the Library’s special collections are the Paul K. Fonoroff Collection for Chinese Film Studies, containing monographs, graphics, and ephemera, and the extensive archive of Taiwan politician James Soong, founder of the People First Party.

THE ENVIRONMENT
The University of California, Berkeley, is one of the world’s most iconic teaching and research institutions. Since 1868, Berkeley has fueled a perpetual renaissance, generating unparalleled intellectual, economic, and social value in California, the United States, and the world.

Berkeley’s culture of openness, freedom, and acceptance — academic and artistic, political and cultural — make it a very special place for students, faculty, and staff. Berkeley is committed to hiring and developing staff who want to work in a high-performing culture that supports the outstanding work of our faculty and students.

In a highly diverse and intellectually rich environment, Berkeley serves a campus community of more than 33,000 undergraduate students and more than 12,000 graduate students as well as approximately 1,500 ladder-rank faculty across 15 schools and colleges. The Library also serves the people of California and the world through lending to several countries a year, and making available a rapidly growing archive of digitized materials and collections from its various collections across all the libraries. The UC Berkeley Library has also contributed hundreds of thousands of digitized books to HathiTrust through in-house digitization and partnering with the Google Books Project.

The Library comprises 20 campus libraries, with a collection of more than 14 million volumes, including more than 3 million e-books, 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. UC Berkeley Library’s digital collections platform hosts over two hundred thousand records and 1.8 million files and manages digital preservation of about 558 TB of items (through Merritt repository and HathiTrust Digital Library). In FY24, 1.75M files were digitized by the Library. The UC Berkeley Library actively partners with the other nine UC campuses and the systemwide California Digital Library. The Library manages the systemwide off-site Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF), which currently houses over 7.7 million items with a 2.9 million item expansion in Phase 4, which opened in 2020. The Library has a current operating budget of about $69 million with approximately 270 full-time employees and nearly 700 student employees each year.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The Director reports to the University Librarian and is responsible for all aspects of the management of the East Asian Library. The Director directly manages a staff of 5 librarians, 1 curator, and has oversight over all 21 positions in the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, a vibrant learning hub for both undergraduate and graduate students on campus. The Director oversees a budget of approximately $2.8 million. The Director works closely with members of the faculty and with collection development specialists to guide the growth of the collections. The Director is attentive to the benefits of coordinating collection development regionally and nationally, and oversees cooperation with institutions such as the East Asian collections of other UC campuses and the East Asian collection of Stanford University. The Director is responsible, with the Library Development Office, for fundraising and public relations efforts relating to the Library. The Director will work closely with the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections to provide coordinated, forward-looking strategies and practices for the development, management, and use of Berkeley’s distinctive collections.

As a member of the UC Berkeley Library Cabinet, the Director participates in library-wide program coordination and decision-making. The leadership team identifies and works together to solve the Library’s most complex operational and strategic problems.

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. Assistant University Librarians are entitled to two days per month of vacation leave, and one day per month of sick leave.

The UC Berkeley Library is committed to supporting and encouraging respect and empathy, and nurturing a culture where all employees thrive. The Library seeks candidates who recognize and appreciate one another’s contributions, expertise, and accomplishments, and will strive to provide equitable access to a diverse set of collections and services. For more information, please see the UC Berkeley Library Statement of Values.

This assistant university librarian position is covered by the UC Academic Personnel Manual (APM).

This is a designated position requiring fingerprinting and a background check due to the nature of the job responsibilities. Berkeley does hire people with conviction histories and reviews information received in the context of the job responsibilities. The university reserves the right to make employment contingent upon successful completion of the background check. This recruitment will remain open until filled.

Berkeley Library has retained Berkeley Executive Search, a UC-internal higher education executive search team, to assist in this search. Nominations and/or inquiries may be sent to executivesearch@berkeley.edu.

Applicants should submit a CV and cover letter for consideration.

UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our public mission of research, teaching, and service, consistent with UC Regents Policy 4400 and University of California Academic Personnel policy (APM 210 1-d). These values are embedded in our Principles of Community, which reflect our passion for critical inquiry, debate, discovery and innovation, and our deep commitment to contributing to a better world. Every member of the UC Berkeley community has a role in sustaining a safe, caring and humane environment in which these values can thrive.

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity 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 more information, please refer to the University of California’s Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment 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.

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct.

• “Misconduct” means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant’s previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment or discrimination, as defined by the employer.
• UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy
• UC Anti-Discrimination Policy
• APM - 035: Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment