Opening: Assistant Director, CIC Center for Library Initiatives

COMMITTEE ON INSTITUTIONAL COOPERATION
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
CIC CENTER FOR LIBRARY INITIATIVES

The Center for Library Initiatives (CLI) encourages and supports collaboration among thirteen of the nation's largest and most progressive university research libraries.  As a unit of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) with a full time staff of eighteen, the CLI (3FTE) benefits from daily interaction with talented and energetic colleagues leading a broad range of innovative programs in higher education. This synergy with other CIC staff and programs, and by extension with the faculty and campus administrative leaders they engage, helps to anchor library initiatives in the overall research and instructional programs of the academy.  Current programs of the CLI include acquiring and licensing scholarly resources, building a shared repository for digital content, encouraging open access to scholarly output, supporting cooperative digital conversion, exploring the potential value of emerging Web 2.0 technologies and trends, coordinating distributed print storage, and many other activities aimed at leveraging the resources of our member libraries.

The Assistant Director (AD) of the CIC Center for Library Initiatives works closely with the Director of the CLI, CIC member library groups, and CIC colleagues to support the development, implementation and assessment of CLI action plans. Depending upon the activities involved, the AD assists or leads program planning, project management, and coordination of key collaborative initiatives, including the coordination of library licensing and acquisitions.

This full-time position requires a capable project manager who understands the cooperative library environment and whose leadership style builds upon the ideas and contributions of others.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• Negotiate and administer licenses, contracts, and agreements for electronic information resources.  Coordinate decision-making among library staffs for particular acquisitions.
• Track, analyze and report on cost trends in scholarly resources, and the economic and service benefits that accrue to consortium members through participation in cooperative licensing.
• Coordinate the work of various library committees and task forces across the CIC member libraries.
• Coordinate the benchmarking of CIC library collections and services against peer institutions nationally.
• Manage CLI daily operations in the CIC offices in Champaign, IL, and proactively contribute to the overall planning and management activities of the CIC.
• Lead planning and coordination of topical CIC library conferences.
• Advise library groups on criteria of major granting agencies and assist in the management of consortial library grants.
• Develop and manage information tools to track consortial statistics for licensing, database usage, resource sharing, etc.
• Communicate effectively with library faculty and staff at CIC member universities, peer institutions and consortia nationally, as well as with the vendor community.
• Monitor issues, trends and best practices in library management and scholarly communication, and contribute to that dialogue on behalf of the CIC and its member universities.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

• ALA accredited Masters Degree in Library or Information Science or an equivalent combination of relevant graduate study and experience.
• Three years of demonstrably successful experience in a library, consortium or electronic publishing environment.
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in an organizationally complex and culturally diverse higher education setting.

Preferred:

• Demonstrated experience with the acquisition and/or management of library information resources.
• Demonstrated aptitude for project management, and team leadership of individuals and groups with direct responsibility for program development and project management
• Data management experience, including the ability to organize, present, and analyze financial and usage data.
• Knowledge of contemporary practices and trends for managing electronic resources in a library environment.
• A record of active professional engagement, including professional presentations and publication.

Salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and level of experience. To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by May 20, 2007. Interviews may be scheduled prior to the closing date but no decisions on hiring will be made prior to the closing date. The starting date is as soon as possible after closing.  To apply, please submit a resume, the names and contact information of three professional references, and a letter describing your experience and qualifications, as well as salary requirements, to:

Darlene Hutchinson,
Secretary, Committee on Institutional Cooperation
1819 South Neil Street, Suite D
Champaign, IL  61820.
Telephone: (217) 244-9239
Fax: (217) 244-7127
Email:  djhutch@uiuc.edu.

The CIC and the University of Illinois are affirmative action/equal opportunity employers.