Employment Opportunities

Assistant Professor of Book Arts and Papermaking, University of Nebraska Omaha

https://unomaha.peopleadmin.com/postings/16221

The School of the Arts at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the areas of Book Arts and Papermaking. The successful candidate is expected to have a strong professional record, teaching experience at the university level, and a commitment to teaching undergraduates from diverse backgrounds. The ideal faculty member will teach traditional and innovative techniques in Book Arts, Papermaking, Letterpress, Typography, and Foundation courses and will seek collaborative opportunities with the various concentrations in Art & Art History (sculpture, printmaking, graphic design, illustration, and drawing) and the School’s Writer’s Workshop. Service duties within the unit include advising students (BASA and BFA) with 3D concentrations, developing and supervising internship opportunities, and maintaining the Book Arts and Papermaking classrooms and equipment (4 Vandercook proof presses, Pearl and Baltimorean treadle presses, Ostrander Seymour.

Contact:
Adrian R. Duran, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Art & Art History
arduran@unomaha.edu

Teaching and Learning Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth

Mission or Goal of Unit:
The VCU Libraries transforms our communities by enriching scholarship, learning, creative endeavors, and clinical care through inclusive and equitable teaching, collections, and leadership.

Chief Purpose of this position:
The Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries invites applications and nominations for the position of Special Collections and Archives Teaching and Learning Librarian. This position works in a collaborative environment in the Special Collections and Archives (SCA) department to provide instruction for a range of primary source materials including artists’ books, born digital archives, comic arts materials, manuscript collections, and rare books. The SCA Teaching and Learning Librarian will lead the department’s instruction program, seek to expand the instruction program across libraries on the Monroe Park Campus (MPC) and the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Campus, and oversee a dedicated instruction room at the James Branch Cabell Library. The successful candidate will join a culturally and academically diverse faculty or the highest caliber.

Diversity and Inclusion
VCU’s commitment to diversity is one of the institution’s unique strengths. Our student body is one of the most diverse in Virginia in terms of race and ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and one of the four themes of our Quest 2025 Strategic Plan is “Diversity driving excellence.” The United States Department of Education has designated VCU as a minority serving institution effective July 1, 2022. VCU is committed to building an increasingly diverse faculty and leadership team, and is actively engaged in partnerships with diverse communities in the Richmond metro area. VCU Libraries is purposeful in our efforts to advance diversity and inclusion and expects that the Teaching and Learning Librarian will be a leader in fostering a welcoming atmosphere for all members of the VCU community. The successful candidate will receive support for research, service, and professional development and will have ample opportunity to pursue diversity and inclusion related opportunities in those areas.

Responsibilities
Reporting to the Head of Special Collections and Archives, and working closely with department colleagues and others in instructional roles, the SCA Teaching and Learning Librarian is responsible for developing, enhancing, and promoting the department’s instruction program. Additional responsibilities include:

• Works with faculty to design, teach, and assess instruction sessions, workshops, and programs with primary source resources including artists’ books, comic arts materials, manuscript collections, and rare books.
• Collaborates with department staff to develop a framework for instruction services and outreach that includes workflows, guidelines, and pedagogical values/uses of special collections and archives. 
• Leads the expansion of the department’s instruction services to include content and tools that support traditional and virtual environments. 
• Partners with other library departments engaged in teaching, learning, and research to provide joint support for students and researchers in areas supported by special collections and archives.
• Contributes to the department’s efforts to enhance access to collections and provides research support and consultations. 
• Coordinates the department’s internship experiences and provides internal staff training; may supervise student and hourly employees. 
• Retrieves and returns archival boxes weighing up to 40 lbs. 
• The SCA Teaching and Learning Librarian is expected to be active professionally and to contribute to developments in the field. Faculty with the VCU Libraries are evaluated, and promoted, on the basis of job performance, scholarship, and service.

Required Qualifications:

• ALA-accredited graduate degree or accredited graduate degree in another appropriate discipline. 
• Experience delivering instruction or training effectively. 
• Demonstrated experience working in and fostering a diverse faculty, staff, and student environment or commitment to do so as a faculty member at VCU.
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in an archival/museum setting or academic research library with significant responsibilities in instruction and education. 
• Knowledge of visual and primary source literacy standards.
• Demonstrated experience with current trends and practices for instruction in special collections and archives including universal design for learning principles. 
• Knowledge of archives, born digital archives, comic arts materials, contemporary artists’ books, or rare books and their application in the academic curriculum. 
• Knowledge of document and object analysis techniques. 
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and organization skills. 
• Familiarity with preservation, copyright, and privacy issues. 
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a production-oriented, team environment. 
• Candidates need not meet the preferred qualifications to be fully considered. We value many individual and unique skills that would strengthen the VCU Libraries and our teams.

Salary: Salary commensurate with experience, not less than $55,000 annually. This is a full-time, non-tenured faculty position. 12-month faculty benefits apply, including 24 vacation days annually and choice of retirement and annuity plans. Relocation assistance is available. Librarians are provided a generous professional development allowance. For more information about benefits, see the Faculty Benefits page.

Interviews: Initial interviews, if held, will be conducted virtually. We anticipate inviting finalists to campus.

Learn about the position in an online information session.
We are hosting information sessions for interested applicants in advance of the August 15 review date. Please consider joining one of these sessions to learn more about the position, meet the supervisor, Interim Head of Special Collections and Archives and University Archivist Jodi Koste, and get answers to your questions about the position.

Join one of our info sessions via Zoom:
Monday, August 1, 2022 | 4:00-4:30 pm EDT
Tuesday, August 9, 2022 | 1:00-1:30 pm EDT
Friday, August 12, 2022 | 10:00-10:30 am EDT

The attendee list for each Zoom session will be hidden and those asking questions may do so anonymously. Live captioning will be provided. To attend a session, please complete the confidential form to receive a Zoom link.

Questions? Please contact Jodi Koste at jlkoste@vcu.edu.

Virginia Commonwealth University and the VCU Libraries
As one of only 71 public universities with academic medical centers to be designated by the Carnegie Foundation as “Community Engaged” with “Very High Research Activity,” Virginia Commonwealth University ranks among Virginia’s largest research universities, enrolling over 29,000 students. Located in the heart of Richmond, VCU offers 44 doctoral, 68 masters, 3 professional, and 71 baccalaureate degree programs. Thirty-four of VCU's graduate and professional programs are ranked by U.S. News & World Report as among the best in the nation, with 26 programs ranking in the top 50 and sculpture and nurse anesthesia ranked number one. Over 2,400 faculty comprise the University's teaching force. Research strengths at the University include health and life sciences, education, engineering, social work, behavioral sciences, public affairs, advertising and design, and the fine arts. Sponsored research funding totals over $363 million, placing VCU among the top 100 research institutions in the United States.

Libraries at Virginia Commonwealth University, including the James Branch Cabell Library on the Monroe Park Campus and the Health Sciences Library on the Medical College of Virginia Campus, employ over 60 professionals and 64 staff with annual expenditures exceeding $22 million. VCU also operates academic programs in Doha, Qatar, supported by a library there, and in various locations throughout the U.S. and the world. The VCU Libraries is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, Center for Research Libraries, Coalition for Networked Information, National Digital Stewardship Alliance, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, and the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), a statewide networking consortium for shared access to electronic and print resources, as well as a Resource Library in the Network of the National Library of Medicine, among others. The VCU Libraries uses the following packages for its system architecture: Alma, Primo, Islandora, Digital Commons, ArchivesSpace, ILLiad, and Omeka.

The Monroe Park Campus of VCU is located in Richmond's Fan District, a large, residential neighborhood of townhouses, shops, and cafes. The campus is home to most of the University’s undergraduate and many of its graduate programs, including the School of the Arts, the Colleges of Humanities and Sciences, and Engineering and the Schools of Business, Education, and Social Work. The School of Social Work also offers the Masters of Social Work at the Northern Virginia Campus in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition, VCU’s Qatar campus in the Middle East offers degree programs through the School of the Arts.

The MCV Campus, located in historic Court End near state and local government and financial centers, is home to the VCU Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy; VCU College of Health Professions; the Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research; and VCU Health. VCU Health includes VCU Medical Center, a Magnet Recognized hospital with 812 inpatient beds, outpatient clinics, a Level 1 trauma center, and over 800 physicians in 200 specialty areas, many of national and international renown, as well as the Children’s Hospital at VCU and Massey Cancer Center, Virginia's first NCI-designated cancer center. In addition to multidisciplinary centers for cancer, cardiology, neurosurgery, and transplantation, VCU Health offers virtually every form of contemporary medical service.

Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library and the Health Sciences Library houses primary source materials, rare publications, and the university archives for VCU. The department’s manuscript holdings document the history of twentieth and twenty-first century Richmond and Central Virginia including: African American, LGBTQIA+, and women’s history; civil rights and social justice; urban planning; visual, literary, and performing arts; and collections focused on the history of health sciences and the health care professions. Additional research collections consist of: book arts; comic arts; Richmond history from the late 19th century to the present; alternative and underground publications; the personal library of James Branch Cabell; 19th-century American medical imprints; health sciences history focused on Virginia and the South; physiatry; and the Richmond Academy of Medicine Joseph Lyon Miller Collection. Other resources of note include the Anderson Gallery and medical artifacts collections.

For more information about the VCU Libraries, please visit our home page at https://www.library.vcu.edu/. Review of applications will begin [August 15, 2022] and will continue until the position is filled. To apply, go to https://www.vcujobs.com/, complete the application and submit a cover letter, CV/resume, and the names, email addresses, addresses, and telephone numbers of three professional references. Applicants are requested to submit a Statement of Contributions to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion providing your career aspirations and contributions toward promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Virginia Commonwealth University is an urban research institution with a richly diverse university community and commitment to multicultural opportunities. Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity affirmative action university providing access to education and employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, political affiliation or disability.