JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE: Head of Acquisitions and Resource Management

REPORTS TO: Director of IT and Libraries

PRIMARY FUNCTION: The Head of Acquisitions & Resource Management oversees the Acquisitions & Resource Management (ARM) department in the work of acquiring, cataloging, processing, activating, maintaining and/or deselecting all of the Libraries’ physical and electronic resources (730,000 print books, 460,000 e-books, 690,000 streaming videos and albums, 82,000print and online journal titles, and more than 300 databases). The Head of ARM plans, organizes, and oversees all aspects of resource acquisitions and licensing; serials and electronic resource management; and cataloging and metadata creation and integration for the Rolvaag Memorial Library, Halvorsen Music Library, Hustad Science Library and Hong Kierkegaard Library. As a member of the Libraries’ Leadership Team, the Head of Acquisitions & Resource Management contributes to library-wide planning, policy-making, goal setting, and the development and leadership of new services and initiatives. As a member of the Bridge Consortium, the Head of Acquisitions & Resource Management will work collaboratively and in tandem with peers at Carleton College to ensure that work is not duplicated and that costs are contained or reduced. Additionally, the Head of Acquisitions & Resource Management may be asked to provide services to Carleton College and is responsible for participating in all appropriate Bridge working groups, meetings and functions.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

Leadership and Supervision (50%) 1. Serves on the libraries’ Leadership Team to lead a library staff of 26 librarians and associates, to develop library-wide goals and policies for the library, and to manage the libraries’ operating budget. 2. Serves as a member of the Bridge Management Team to lead the Carleton and St. Olaf Libraries in the overall planning, management and evaluation of Bridge Consortium programs, activities and services. Explores new areas for cooperation and collaboration between the Carleton and St. Olaf Libraries. 3. Supervises a staff of seven employees. 4. Establishes and evaluates ARM department policies, standards, procedures, workflows, and goals with a focus on overall operational efficiency and closely coordinates these efforts with Technical Services at Carleton. 5. Develops budgets and cost estimates for anticipated and ongoing department needs. 6. Leads the St. Olaf Acquisitions and Cataloging teams and co-manages the Bridge Cataloging and Acquisitions Working Groups 7. Monitors and evaluates trends and developments relevant to academic libraries, particularly in the areas of acquisitions, metadata standards, cataloging practices, authority control and digital and electronic collection management. 8. Participates in local, regional, and national organizations as appropriate, representing the Libraries as their chief technical services specialist. 9. Evaluates, plans and coordinates special project needs related to the management of the libraries’ collections. Investigates alternate funding and staffing sources when appropriate.

Oversight and Training for ARM Departmental Functions (25%)

1. Provides initial and ongoing training for ARM staff and student employees and provide troubleshooting and technical support as needed. 2. Oversees the work of staff members and student workers involved in the acquisition, processing, continuation and cancellation of physical materials, online databases, electronic archives and sets, standing orders, foreign orders and all print and electronic serials. Implements efficient automated acquisitions workflows wherever possible. 3. Oversees the work of staff members in the area of electronic resource management and discovery. 4. Oversees the creation, acquisition, integration, and lifecycle management of metadata and the supporting processes. Supervise the creation and maintenance of the bibliographic, item, and other data records for the collections. Implements quality control measures for these records. This also includes the evaluation of vendor-provided catalog records and batch loading/updating of bibliographic and authority records. 5. Implements automated workflow for record processing whenever possible and uses contract services whenever cost effective. 6. Provides strategic guidance for the coordination of cataloging and discovery services including working closely with Bridge staff to ensure clear, consistent and current user- focused access to, and presentation of, Bridge holdings. Ensure that bibliographic, order, item and serials records are created and coded in a way that allows resources to be easily discovered and to provide accurate and useful statistics to staff, library administrators, and other important stakeholders.

Cross-Departmental Functions (15%)

1. Collaborates with the Head of Collection Development to manage and maintain the 1.8M library materials budget. Also works with the Head of Collection Development to implement new policies and to prepare regular and special reviews of the periodical and electronic resources collections. 2. Serves as backup and support for systems librarian in the areas of library system configuration and maintenance, assisting with technology needs, administering library staff wikis, mailing aliases, and shared drive. 3. Supervises the collection and extrapolation of all library resource statistics and the preparation of reports including those related to the Libraries’ budgets and expenditures. Develops and manages tools for extracting and evaluating statistics. 4. Other responsibilities as assigned.

CONTACTS: Regular contact with St. Olaf and Carleton staff and faculty as well as external service providers including publishers, vendors, content providers and technology suppliers.

EDUCATION: Essential: ALA-accredited MLS or equivalent.

EXPERIENCE: Essential: Minimum of 5 to 7 years of progressively responsible experience in libraries. Demonstrated leadership and supervisory skills and experience. Expertise with library software such as integrated library systems, electronic resource management systems, and/or bibliographic utilities. Knowledge of emerging and current practices in acquiring, describing, and making library resources accessible through various discovery tools.

Desirable: Experience in academic libraries, particularly in a liberal arts college. Experience with managing financial information in a complex accounting system. Experience with original cataloging/metadata creation.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES:  Ability to foster teamwork, communication, and collaboration within and between departments.  Commitment to involving staff in addressing problems and solutions, and an ability to foster a sense of investment and ownership in the libraries’ mission and challenges.  Outstanding interpersonal, organizational, and managerial skills. Excellent oral and written communication skills.  Ability to mentor and train others.  Demonstrated ability to work independently to identify and solve problems  Ability to learn and adapt to new technologies and software  A commitment to the ideas and goals of a liberal arts college and its library.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: No significant physical demands.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT: Office environment. Ergonomic issues involving computer work that include repetitive motion, eye strain, back and neck strain. Works in an environment that may contain dust, mildew or other allergens.

WORK SCHEDULE: FTE: 1.0 Term: Year-round position

APPROVAL Director of IT and Libraries DATE: November 2015