Career Center

About this position:

Davidson’s E.H. Little Library, recipient of the 2021 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, seeks a collaborative and enthusiastic Systems and Discovery Librarian to join our team. 

Working in collaboration across library teams, you will provide robust support and help shape strategic directions for library systems and services including Davidson’s library services platform (currently Ex Libris’ Alma), discovery system (currently Primo), and digital asset management system (currently Alma Digital). Using your expertise in systems and metadata management, you will play a key role in facilitating discovery and delivery of the library’s collection, and in enhancing and improving library workflows.

Guided by our organizational values, we work to advance the college’s purpose in developing disciplined and creative minds for lives of leadership and service by providing expertise, space, resources, and services for research, access to, and creation of information. We are most proud of how our expertise, programming, and resources intersect with and support the college’s strategic priorities, especially those of access and social justice. Library staff play an important role in expanding the global impact of traditional scholarship, stewarding born-digital materials, supporting digital scholarship, and advocating for equitable and sustainable access to information​. 

We are inspired by the college’s public commitment to racial equity and justice. To create an inclusive learning community and to reflect the diversity of Davidson experiences, we collaborate on projects that reframe the narratives our college tells about itself, develop collections in partnership with students and faculty, and create meaningful community connections. We seek a thoughtful colleague who joins us in embracing a special set of responsibilities as we articulate the college’s relationship to the past, confront our present moment, and chart a hopeful future. Read more about Davidson College’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion here: https://www.davidson.edu/diversity-equity-inclusion 

In this position, you will:

• Serve as lead administrator for the library services platform, discovery system, information management systems, and digital asset management systems, leading configuration, user administration, and policy creation across teams.

• Provide support, troubleshooting, training, and guidance for staff for Alma and related library systems. Support analytics and queries to generate insight into library materials, usage, circulation, space, and consortial commitments.

• Collaborate with colleagues and with external vendors on Alma imports and exports, and partners with library colleagues on other metadata initiatives. Monitor and provide quality control over staff- and third party-provided metadata.

• Develop integrations between library systems such as Primo, ArchivesSpace and LibGuides to support discovery and enhance the user experience. 

• Serve as principal technical liaison with campus representatives and vendors for library discovery and related systems. 

• Support integration of interlibrary loan and document delivery management systems (currently ILLiad.)

• Explore, evaluate, recommend, and implement new technologies and web applications to advance library strategic goals and enhance patron services.

• Collaborate closely with colleagues within the library, in Technology & Innovation (T&I), and across campus on library systems and services. Serve on a variety of working groups and cross-functional teams that focus on discovery of and access to library and information resources, as well as broader committees and working groups across the library’s partnerships and consortial relationships.

• Participate in the overall development of the library’s efforts to provide expertise, space, resources, and services for research, access to, and creation of information to support our community.

Qualifications that will help you flourish in this role:

• You are a collaborative team player with strong interpersonal, problem-solving, and communication skills. 

• You are committed to creating an inclusive environment that values and celebrates difference. 

• You possess strong organizational and project management skills. 

• You demonstrate resilience, adaptability, and capacity to operate flexibly in a rapidly evolving landscape.  

• You have experience with Ex Libris Alma system administration. Alma Administrator Certification or willingness to be certified within the first month of employment is essential.

• You have experience administering information management systems such as ArchivesSpace, digital asset management systems, and/or institutional repositories. 

• You have experience in supporting library-specific applications, software (e.g., EZProxy, ILLIAD), and equipment, preferably in an academic library setting.

For this job, we require that:

• You have a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from a program accredited by the American Library Association. 

• You have demonstrated experience with integrated library system management and/or discovery systems support, preferably in an academic library. 

• Equivalent combinations of related experiences, education, and training will be considered.

Compensation

Our salaries are benchmarked to national liberal arts colleges and regional colleges and universities. The position hiring manager is happy to discuss our salary benchmarks at any stage of the interview process. In addition to joining a great library organization that is committed to supporting your professional well-being, Davidson College offers numerous benefits as an employer including:

• 4 weeks of vacation in your first year on the job, plus College holidays

• Health insurance

• A 403(b) retirement plan to which the College contributes at least 8.5% of your salary

• Tuition assistance for employees and their dependents

• Please see https://www.davidson.edu/offices-and-services/human-resources for additional information 

This is a full-time, 12-month position. Apply by April 30, 2023 for fullest consideration. Candidates are asked to submit a resume and a cover letter addressing your knowledge and skills related to this position and how your experience will support our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Information about how to submit an application can be found at https://employment.davidson.edu

Consistently ranked among the nation’s top liberal arts colleges, Davidson College is a highly selective, independent liberal arts college located in Davidson, North Carolina, close to the city of Charlotte. At Davidson College, we believe the college grows stronger by recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff committed to building an inclusive community. In order to achieve and sustain educational excellence, we seek to hire talented faculty and staff across the intersections of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, political perspectives, abilities, cultures, and national origins.

At Davidson College, we believe the college grows stronger by recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff committed to building an inclusive community.  In order to achieve and sustain educational excellence, we seek to hire talented faculty and staff across the intersections of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, political perspectives, abilities, cultures, and national origins.

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About Davidson College

Davidson College seeks out intellectually curious students who are committed to developing their talents for lives of leadership and service.Small classes enable our renowned faculty to work closely with students, engaging them directly in original research and creative work across the arts, sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In the classroom and beyond, Davidson cultivates students' compassion, creativity, resilience, and moral courage.

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