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.
- Provide 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.
- Oversee, coordinate, and carry 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.
- Coordinate and prioritize Library activities, including outreach, special programs, and digitization, as related to the Museum’s strategic priorities.
- Budget planning, monitoring, and reporting for the Library.
- Work with Field Museum researchers and other staff on identifying strategic acquisitions.
- Serve 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).
- Contribute to professional organizations at multiple levels and keep up-to-date with trends and developments in libraries, especially natural history libraries.
- Build and strengthen external partnerships with local, national, and global libraries.
- Represent the Library to relevant Board of Trustees committees and the Board in general.
- Assist in fundraising, including grant submissions and fulfillment, and promotion for the Library and general Museum operations.
- Provide research and reference assistance for the Library to users.
- Oversee the Museum’s interlibrary loan program and online resource subscriptions.
- Support loans of materials for internal and external exhibitions, and assist with the development and review of exhibition and educational content as needed.
- Work with the Museum’s Center for Repatriation to fulfill obligations related to the repatriation of Library materials, especially with regard to NAGPRA.
- Oversee physical moves of the Library’s materials, equipment, and furniture as needed and work with other Museum staff to assess space needs across the institution.
- Participate in museum disaster planning and serve as the primary contact for after-hours emergencies in Library storage spaces.
- Supervise all Library staff plus volunteers and interns as needed.
- Recruit, hire, manage, and evaluate Library staff as needed.
Qualifications:
- Graduation from an accredited American Library Association program with a Master’s degree in Library Science.
- At least five years of progressively responsible professional library experience including three years of supervisory experience, preferably in a natural history and/or research library.
- Functional knowledge of LibGuides, Integrated Library System (preferably OCLC’s WorldShare Management Systems), ContentDM, and other library applications.
- Strong knowledge of library operations, current trends, and best practices for museum and/or research libraries.
- Excellent management, organizational, and communication skills, including personnel supervision, budget administration, and peer collaboration.
- Experience with special collections in all formats, including rare books, archives, and photo archives.
- Understanding of preservation issues common in specialized libraries.
- Knowledge of the rare book and manuscript trade.
- Successful fundraising experience or a desire to engage in fundraising.
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a diverse group of colleagues, researchers, donors, and other individuals and communities.
- Demonstrated collegiality, professional contributions, and a record of collaboration.
- Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Record of successful project oversight and decision-making.
- Excellent spoken and written communication skills.
Supervision of Others:
- Cataloging and Metadata Librarian
- Library Technical Assistant
- Library Collections Specialist
- Photo Archivist
About the Library:
The Field Museum Library is committed to supporting the Museum’s mission as an educational and research institution concerned with diversity and relationships in nature and among cultures. We seek to provide convenient and effective access to quality library services, research collections, and information resources to meet the scientific, professional, and creative needs of the research and educational communities. The strengths of the holdings parallel the strengths of the Museum’s scientific collections in the fields of anthropology and archaeology, botany, geology, paleontology, meteoritics, and zoology. The Library emphasizes biological systematics, evolutionary biology, geology, archaeology, ethnology, and material culture.
The Library’s holdings include more than 275,000 volumes of books and journals. Serial publications