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Library Director | Field Museum of Natural History

Posted on Nov 18, 2024

Our Mission : Since the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, our organization has aimed to connect people to the natural environment and human history.

The Library Director oversees the Marie Louise Rosenthal Library at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. This individual manages all aspects of care and management for the Library, including Archives, Photo Archives, and Rare Book and General Library, and supports researchers in natural and cultural history. The Museum seeks an individual with innovative ideas for museum libraries and a proven record of building intra- and inter-organizational relationships. This position reports to the Vice President of Collections, Conservation, and Research.

Duties and Responsibilities :

• Direct the strategic planning and prioritization of projects, including periodic evaluations and assessments, for the Marie Louise Rosenthal Library with a special focus on digitization and digital initiatives.
• Provides leadership for developing initiatives related to the Library, ensuring that all holdings are discoverable, accessible, and effectively used in Museum-wide endeavors, research, programming, exhibition, and education initiatives.
• Oversees, coordinates, and carries out a variety of care duties for the Library, including several satellite libraries throughout the building, ensuring that best practices are followed for materials care and preservation.
• Coordinates and prioritizes Library activities, including outreach, special programs, and digitization, as related to the Museum’s strategic priorities.
• Budget planning, monitoring, and reporting for the Library.
• Responsible for working with Field Museum researchers and other staff on identifying strategic acquisitions.
• Serves as primary liaison for external partnerships, including Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), Reaching Across Illinois Libraries (RAILS), and the International Environmental Library Consortium (IELC).
• Contributes to professional organizations at multiple levels and keeps up-to-date with trends and developments in libraries, especially natural history libraries.
• Builds and strengthens external partnerships with local, national, and global libraries.
• Represents the Library to relevant Board of Trustees committees and the Board in general.
• Assists in fundraising, including grant submissions and fulfillment, and promotion for the Library and general Museum operations.
• Provides research and reference assistance for the Library to users.
• Oversees the Museum’s interlibrary loan program and online resource subscriptions.
• Supports loans of materials for internal and external exhibitions, and assists with the development and review of exhibition and educational content as needed.
• Works with the Museum’s Center for Repatriation to fulfill obligations related to the repatriation of Library materials, especially with regard to NAGPRA.
• Oversees physical moves of the Library’s materials, equipment, and furniture as needed and works with other Museum staff to assess space needs across the institution.
• Participates in museum disaster planning and serves as the primary contact for after-hours emergencies in Library storage spaces.
• Supervises all Library staff plus volunteers and interns as needed.
• Recruits, hires, manages, and evaluates Library staff as needed.

Location

Field Museum of Natural History

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1400 S Lake Shore Dr

Chicago, IL 60605

United States

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