Director of the Bowdoin College Library

at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, United States

Job Description

Director of the Bowdoin College Library

Bowdoin College, one of the oldest and most selective coeducational, residential liberal arts colleges in the country, seeks an experienced and strategic library leader to serve as the next Director of the Bowdoin College Library (https://library.bowdoin.edu) . As the intellectual heart of the Bowdoin campus and serving as a major research resource in the state of Maine, the College Library is highly valued for its rich collections, extensive services, and outstanding staff. The library strives to be forward-thinking, welcoming, and to promote inclusive excellence to support Bowdoin’s diverse community.

Reporting to the Dean for Academic Affairs, the Library Director is a critical partner in the unique educational environment at Bowdoin – one where students build an education for themselves in the service of the greater common good (https://www.bowdoin.edu/about/common-good/index.html) .

Key Responsibilities:

At their core, libraries share information, advance knowledge, and facilitate connection. In a rapidly changing digital age, the way libraries and their users collect, access, and disseminate data, information, and research results will continue to evolve quickly. As a result, there are unprecedented opportunities to improve how we engage with one another and with information through new mechanisms of collecting, storing, organizing, and disseminating information; new models of publishing; and new modes of discovery and use. It is incumbent upon the library director to ensure that the Bowdoin community has access to the best tools and resources for this work.

The Library Director will be responsible for the following:

+ Providing strategic vision, direction, and leadership for the continued development and advancement of the library as a center of academic excellence on campus, ensuring that all library programs and services promote the college’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion;

+ Recruiting and retaining outstanding library staff; supervising performance and review processes; and developing, implementing, and maintaining plans that provide for professional and staff development in a collegial environment;

+ Planning and implementing library building space redesign, remodeling and/or refurbishing to accommodate changing functional, curricular, and programmatic priorities;

+ Collaborating with faculty and academic administrators to provide library support for academic programs, faculty instruction and scholarship, and student learning activities;

+ Overseeing and managing all operating, general, and endowed budget lines and preparing the annual budget with future projects and long-term strategic initiatives in mind;

+ Reviewing and evaluating new technological developments and capabilities for potential application to library procedures and services;

+ Providing leadership on issues related to the production, use and sharing of information in the academy, including creating awareness around aspects of scholarly publishing, open access, and copyright;

+ Ensuring that the library complies with the ethical and legal standards of the American Library Association, the Federal Depository Program, and other appropriate bodies;

+ Collaborating with other libraries, archives, agencies, and depositories in fostering cooperative programs, resource-sharing agreements, and demonstrating active involvement in professional organizations on both a regional and national level;

+ Participating in the governance of the CBB consortium and engaging in the Oberlin Group as well as statewide organizations and committees as an advocate for the Bowdoin College Library;

+ Consulting regularly with the Dean for Academic Affairs on all aspects of library operations and engaging in institutional leadership as appropriate and/or assigned; and,

+ Performing other responsibilities as assigned.

Salary for the role is currently anticipated to range from $185,000 to $210,000, based on experience and ability to have broad and early impact.

The next Director of the Bowdoin Library will understand the opportunities and challenges facing academic libraries today. They will be a proven leader with a demonstrated capacity to advance strategic priorities and advocate for their library. The next Director will balance the traditional with the innovative – evaluating and developing strategies for facility assessment and planning service models, teaching, learning, and scholarship.

The successful candidate will be an accomplished librarian with an advanced degree in librarianship or a relevant field of study and will have advanced through progressively more responsible positions in library administration. Of critical importance for success in this role is a deep understanding of and passion for the mission and goals of an outstanding liberal arts college and the commitment to excellence that is an integral part of Bowdoin’s culture.

The ideal candidate will possess many of the following preferred qualifications:

+ Proven ability to serve as an effective leader and manager of an academic library, not only through the management of people and budgets, but also in analysis, short and long-term strategic planning and execution, and successful implementation of new ideas, services, and technologies;

+ Ability to serve as an institution-wide partner and team player, able to engage in constructive dialogue and to advocate persuasively and transparently for the mission and priorities of a library;

+ Demonstrated success in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within an institution, as reflected in hiring practices, student engagement, and library content and accessibility;

+ History of successful staff recruitment, development, mentorship, and team building;

+ Experience leading the evaluation, renovation, and/or development of campus facilities;

+ Ability to work with a diverse constituency of faculty, students, staff, donors, and alumni;

+ Understanding of the ways in which technology is shaping scholarship, publication, and the dissemination and preservation of knowledge, as well as facility in navigating and leading in this fast-changing landscape;

+ Knowledge both of innovative and of well-proven library practices and service;

+ Intellectual confidence and curiosity as well as creativity and flexibility;

+ Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills;

+ Excellent fiscal management skills;

+ A talent for building and leveraging consortial relationships to increase access to resources, improve efficiency of operations, and reduce costs;

+ Intellectual leadership, able to think creatively and to participate actively in national discussions on the future of libraries and the liberal arts.

This is an exempt position requiring the time commitment necessary to complete the job requirements. Hours are primarily Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Frequent evening and weekend duties.

It is the mission of Bowdoin College to engage students of uncommon promise in an intense full-time education of their minds, exploration of their creative faculties, and development of their social and leadership abilities in a fou