[Web4lib] Job Posting: University of Southern California Digital Preservation Librarian

[Deborah Holmes-Wong]

Please excuse the cross-posting:

Digital Preservation Librarian
Position #234

Information Development and Management
USC Libraries
University of Southern California

POSITION SUMMARY


The University of Southern California (USC) is seeking a digital 
preservation professional to join its digital library team, known 
internally as Archiving, Imaging and Metadata Services. The Digital 
Preservation Librarian coordinates the development and implementation of 
preservation policy for the University of Southern California’s digital 
collections and serves as a liaison to the USC community for digital 
preservation projects and initiatives. This is an evolving position 
intended to develop a framework to establishment a cohesive digital 
preservation program at USC. This framework will include; 1) an 
effective and achievable strategy to ensure the long-term viability of 
university digital assets regardless of format; 2) development of a 
collection strategy for all relevant campus assets. The Digital 
Preservation Librarian will shape USC’s role in the digital library 
environment assuming a larger preservation community and a distributed 
and cooperative worldview. The position has primary reporting 
responsibility in Archiving, Imaging and Metadata Services (AIMS) to the 
Associate Executive Director, Information Development and Management and 
a secondary reporting line to the Director of Special Libraries and 
Archival Collections.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Founded in 1879, USC is an international center of learning, enrolling 
more than 30,000 FTE undergraduate, graduate, and professional students 
on the University Park and the Health Sciences campuses and offering 
degrees through its College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Graduate 
School, and 16 professional schools. It ranks in the top 10 among 
private research universities in the United States in federally funded 
research and in voluntary support. USC is one of only four private 
research universities in the western United States elected to membership 
in the Association of American Universities, a group that represents the 
top one percent of the nation's accredited universities and which 
accounts for nearly two-thirds of all federally sponsored research.

This is an exciting time to come to the university. USC recently 
completed the “Building on Excellence” campaign, the most successful 
fundraising effort in the history of higher education in the United 
States. The campaign totaled in excess of $2.85 billion, leading to 125 
new endowed chairs and professorships and 25 new and expanded research 
institutes or centers, many in engineering and the sciences. Several 
other new initiatives serve to enhance USC's academic and research 
mission. The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences is hiring 100 new 
senior faculty members — outstanding professors from around the world — 
that will boost the college's faculty by 25%. In addition, the Provost 
has instigated a $100 million campaign to support and improve graduate 
education at USC.

The university's strategic plan, “USC's Plan for Increasing Academic 
Excellence: Building Strategic Capabilities for the University of the 
21st Century,” calls for “Promoting Learner-Centered Education.” To 
become more learner-centered, USC must “create educational structures 
and methods that better fulfill student needs,” and “harness technology 
for more responsiveness and flexibility in education.” The USC Libraries 
administration views the expansion and organization of online physical 
science and engineering information resources as an important goal that 
will substantially further learner-centered education at USC. For more 
on USC's new strategic plan, see: 
http://www.usc.edu/admin/provost/strategicplan/.

USC LIBRARIES

USC’s digital library collection highlights include the Shoah Foundation 
Visual History Archive (VHA), the California Historical Society, Korean 
American Archives and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern 
California. The archive holds 193,252 records and 223,487 content files 
of varying formats. The Shoah Foundation VHA contains 48,700 indexed and 
cataloged testimonies of the collection of 51,000 digitized testimonies. 
In addition to its digital collections the USC Libraries currently hold 
nearly 4 million printed volumes, 6 million items in microform, and 3 
million photographs and subscribe to more than 30,000 current serial 
titles.

USC is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, the Center for 
Research Libraries, the Research Libraries Group, the Digital Library 
Federation, the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium, the 
Greater Western Library Alliance and the Pacific Rim Digital Library 
Alliance. Additional information about the University of Southern 
California and the USC Libraries can be obtained at http://www.usc.edu/ 
and at http://www.usc.edu/libraries/.

Archiving, Imaging and Metdata Services
The USC Libraries has created a technical resource group called 
Archiving, Imaging and Metadata Services (AIMS). Comprised of staff 
formerly a part of the Information Services Division, it is new yet it 
offers years of experience in planning and completing archival projects 
and software solutions for the USC Libraries. These services are 
available University-wide and can directly help with the planning and 
execution of nearly any archival or content management project.
Archiving, Imaging and Metadata Services is at the forefront of 
"Institutional Readiness"—USC’s commitment to provide long-term access 
to digital content. As a mature IT group on campus, this group has the 
skill set and track record to provide faculty with credible support when 
funding agencies look for assurances that research will be disseminated 
in the present and preserved for the future.

Special Libraries and Archival Collections

Based in Doheny Memorial Library, the Specialized Libraries and Archival 
Collections Center provides access to and preserves archival, historic, 
and primary source materials in the Center's main areas of strength: Los 
Angeles regional history; American literature; Lion Feuchtwanger and the 
German emigre experience; natural history; and USC history and the 
university's intellectual life. Additionally, the East Asian Library and 
Boeckmann Center collect research materials and provide reference 
assistance to support the academic needs of USC students and faculty in 
the areas of East Asian, and Iberian, Latin American (with strengths in 
Mexico, Central America, and Cuba), and U.S. Hispanics studies. The 
Shoah Foundation Archive consists of eye-witness accounts of the 
Holocaust and contains discussion of a huge variety of historical, 
cultural, religious, genealogical, and other information relating to 
many countries in the periods before, during, and after World War II. 
The diverse array of disciplines encompassed within the Specialized 
Libraries and Archival Collections Center encourages and promotes 
interdisciplinary research.

Reporting to the Associate Executive Director, Information Development 
and Management of the USC Libraries, the Digital Preservation Librarian 
will:

    * Coordinate and participate in the development of standard
      preservation metadata to identify the minimal set of preservation
      metadata elements.
    * Identify endangered digital materials and prioritize these for
      preservation.
    * Develop an overall migration strategy to ensure that material in
      standard and non-standard or obsolete digital formats will be
      reformatted and/or refreshed regularly.
    * Identify areas where digital preservation policies and procedures
      need to be established or refined.
    * Working with library personnel, establish policies and procedures
      related to digital preservation of USC Libraries’ collections.
    * Working with library personnel, establish policies and procedures
      to ensure long-term access to publisher and other digital
      collections outside the university.
    * Advise departments and faculty across the campus on digital
      preservation issues
    * Coordinate with the Director of Specialized Libraries and Archival
      Collections on the development of the Digital Archive of primary
      source collections



Required Qualifications Include:

    * MLS from an ALA accredited library and information studies program
      or equivalent education and experience.
    * An in depth knowledge and understanding of file formats, file
      format conversion techniques and techniques for content
      non-repudiation.
    * An energetic person with the ability to clearly and confidently
      communicate about digital preservation issues for both technical
      and non-technical audiences.
    * Demonstrated experience with one or more of the following metadata
      standards: Dublin Core, METS/MODS, OpenURL, OAI-PMH, EAD, XML, etc.
    * Demonstrated experience with creation and/or management of digital
      objects in one or more of the following formats: text, image,
      sound, software, multimedia, and/or video.
    * General knowledge of how digital library collections and
      electronic objects are used in an academic setting.
    * Demonstrated understanding of digital preservation.
    * Substantive experience with digital preservation practices.
    * General knowledge of one or more digital asset management systems,
      such as D-Space, CONTENTdm, etc.
    * Proven track record of managing projects and accomplishing goals.


Preferred Qualifications Include:

    * Demonstrated experience working in teams with librarians and other
      information technology professionals.
    * Working knowledge of intellectual property and licensing issues as
      related to electronic resources and digital archives.
    * Solid understanding of non-digital media formats (film, tape, etc).
    * Participation in national and international preservation standards
      organizations (ERPAN, PADI, NISO, AMIA)


APPOINTMENT RANK/SALARY
Librarian II (Contract) or Librarian III (Contract); appointment rank 
and salary commensurate with experience and qualifications. Hiring range 
starts at $50,000.

Contract librarians at USC have faculty status, and, as such, are full, 
voting members of the library faculty. Appointment to the renewable 
Contract Status track requires the potential to demonstrate excellence 
in librarianship and effectiveness in meeting contract standards and 
provisions.

BENEFITS

The position is full-time on a 12-month contract. Benefits include a 
choice of university sponsored retirement programs, 22 paid vacation 
days per year, a choice of medical and dental plans, and tuition 
assistance.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Applications must be submitted via electronic mail. Candidates should 
submit a letter of application, full resume (including telephone and 
e-mail address), and the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail 
addresses of six references to:

Nannette Edelman
libfacjobs at usc.edu
Subject: Search Committee #234
USC Libraries
University of Southern California

Closing date for applications: October 2, 2006

For more information about this position, contact Deborah Holmes Wong, 
Chair of the Search Committee, at < dhwong at usc.edu 
<mailto:dhwong at usc.edu> >

The University of Southern California values diversity and is committed 
to equal opportunity in employment.

USC is an EO/AA employer.


Updated 10/2/06