East Asian Studies Librarian
University of Notre Dame: Hesburgh Libraries
Location: Notre Dame, IN, United States
Open Date: Dec 12, 2023
We seek a skilled, multilingual, collaborative, and service-oriented professional for the position of East Asian Studies Librarian. In addition to advancing Hesburgh Libraries’ strategic framework, this individual will serve as liaison to the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, engaging in outreach, instruction, and personalized research support for faculty and students. The East Asian Studies Librarian also manages, strengthens, expands, and diversifies the East Asian Studies collection in response to the needs of a growing Asian Studies community. The ideal candidate will enable greater research productivity, sustainable publication, and dissemination of scholarship and data.
The successful candidate for this position joins the Hesburgh Libraries at an exciting time of growth and transformation. With new leadership at the Provost, Vice President for Research, Dean of Libraries and Associate University Librarian levels, the Hesburgh Libraries will shift the paradigm on how research libraries further the creation, understanding, and use of knowledge.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Contribute to the development, description, promotion, preservation, and assessment of multi-format, interdisciplinary collections that serve the needs of students and faculty in East Asian Studies.
- Provide instruction and reference support for East Asian Studies students, faculty, affiliates, courses and programs, and other groups as relevant.
- Develop specific services to support and supplement undergraduate and graduate teaching and advanced research programs relevant to East Asian Studies.
- Serve as liaison to East Asian Studies students and faculty across departments, schools, and programs.
- Support and participate in broader Libraries’ information literacy and instruction programs.
- Contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the new strategic frameworks of the Hesburgh Libraries and the University of Notre Dame.
- As a member of the university faculty, seek opportunities to participate in faculty and professional activities within the University and broader community, to contribute to the University’s mission and strategic initiatives.
The East Asian Studies Collection
The Hesburgh Libraries East Asian Studies collection serves the East Asian research and teaching community at Notre Dame, including faculty and students from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, whose fellows represent the Departments of History, Film, Theatre, and Television, Theology, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, and Economics, as well as the Peace Studies and Global Affairs programs. The collection has grown significantly over the past decade and is utilized by an active and growing faculty and student body. The Chinese collection, the largest of the East Asian collections, has relative strengths in literature, philosophy, religion, and history. There are opportunities for growth in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials and for collaboration with the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.
The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures offers majors, supplemental majors, and minors in Chinese and Japanese and a minor in Korean.
The mission of the Liu Institute is to provide a forum for integrated and multidisciplinary research and teaching on Asia and its diaspora. It supports innovative projects that actively combine teaching, research, and social engagement, creating a unique model of rounded education on Asia. The Liu Institute works closely with the East Asian Studies Librarian in identifying sources of funding for collection development.
Environment
The University of Notre Dame is a highly selective global Catholic doctoral research university with very high research activity whose idyllic campus is located in northern Indiana’s Michiana region, and about 90 miles east from Chicago. For more information about the University of Notre Dame, please visit the University of Notre Dame homepage at http://nd.edu/
The Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame advances institutional priorities by utilizing a talent process that maximizes professional and personal potential, implementing innovative services that further intellectual inquiry, and facilitating access to knowledge across a wide range of scholarly resources in numerous disciplines and formats.
As the primary library system on Notre Dame’s campus, Hesburgh Libraries is a dynamic organization that features the flagship Hesburgh Library. Hesburgh Library, along with the Main Building and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, is one of three iconic buildings that define the skyline of the Notre Dame campus. It also features the world-famous Word of Life mural (affectionately known as “Touchdown Jesus”).
The Hesburgh Library building houses the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, the Medieval Institute Library, Rare Books & Special Collections, University Archives, and the Visual Resources Center. The Hesburgh Libraries organization also includes three specialty libraries located across the Notre Dame campus (Architecture Library, Business Library, and Music Library).
In 2022, the Hesburgh Libraries developed a new mission, vision, and strategic framework [pdf] designed to help advance Notre Dame’s aspirations to become one of the world’s leading research universities while prioritizing human and professional flourishing. Within this new framework, each member of the library community plays a key role in advancing strategic goals and objectives, sustaining critical operations, and defining shared values.
The Hesburgh Libraries organization employs nearly 200 people, including more than 50 library faculty members, and has been a longstanding member of several organizations, including Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), Northeast Research Libraries Consortium (NERL), HathiTrust, and the OCLC Research Library Partnership.
Additional information about Hesburgh Libraries can be found on the Libraries’ website https://www.library.nd.edu/employment/. For additional information about working at the University of Notre Dame and various benefits available to employees, please visit http://hr.nd.edu/why-nd.
Required Qualifications
- MLS degree from an ALA-accredited program or non-U.S. equivalent, or equivalent terminal degree required. The degree must be completed before the candidate’s starting date of employment.
- Demonstrated linguistic proficiency in Chinese and excellent oral and written communication skills in English as evidenced by application materials.
- Minimum of two years of topically relevant and demonstrable experience in an academic environment.
- Demonstrated knowledge of current relevant library and/or scholarly communications trends and issues.
- User service orientation with demonstrated ability to work effectively and professionally as part of a team and independently.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced knowledge of Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean history, literature, and culture, including scholarly resources as demonstrated through advanced disciplinary coursework or degree.
- Familiarity with publishing, scholarship, and vendor landscape for Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean Studies.
- Knowledge of other East Asian languages.
- Ability to collaborate with cataloging personnel to appropriately describe East Asian materials.
Salary and Benefits
Faculty appointment, salary, and rank are nationally competitive with peer Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members and commensurate with experience and qualifications. Per the University’s Academic Articles, librarians at Hesburgh Libraries qualify for non-tenure library faculty appointments. Candidates may learn more about Library faculty status through the University’s “Academic Articles” and the Hesburgh Libraries’ information circular “Criteria for Library Faculty Appointment and Promotion”. Both documents are available in the “Library Faculty Positions” section of Hesburgh Libraries’ Employment Opportunities web page, at https://www.library.nd.edu/employment/
In addition, the University of Notre Dame offers an outstanding benefits package. Candidates can view summaries of benefits at Human Resources’ Benefits Summaries web page, at https://hr.nd.edu/employment/benefit-summaries/. For this role, view the summary entitled “Regular Faculty {Full-Time}.”
Finally, the University of Notre Dame supports the needs of dual career couples and has a Dual Career Assistance Program to assist relocating spouses and significant others with their job search. Candidates can view summaries of this program at Human Resources’ Dual Career Assistance Program web page, at https://hr.nd.edu/employment/dual-career-assistance-program/
Diversity and Inclusion
We expect that the successful candidates will increase the diversity of voices within research libraries, higher education, and cultural heritage institutions. Through their materials, applicants should clearly demonstrate how they have embodied, fostered, or implemented an equitable culture that considers diversity to be a competitive advantage.
While the University of Notre Dame welcomes and actively seeks Catholic intellectuals, what the University asks of all its scholars and students is not a particular creedal affiliation, but a respect for the objectives of Notre Dame, and a willingness to enter into the conversation that gives it life and character. Therefore, the University insists upon academic freedom that makes open discussion and inquiry possible.
The University of Notre Dame is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to building a culturally diverse workplace. Moreover, Notre Dame prohibits discrimination against veterans or disabled qualified individuals, and requires affirmative action by covered contractors to employ and advance veterans and qualified individuals with disabilities in compliance with 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-300.5(a).
Application Instructions
Review of applications will begin immediately, and the application period ends on January 29, 2024.
Interested candidates should assemble four (4) items, in the following sequential order, in a single, unlocked Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file:
(1) A formal letter of application (3 pages maximum), addressed to:
Michelle Savoie
Personnel Specialist
Hesburgh Libraries
University of Notre Dame
284 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(2) A résumé or curriculum vitae (15 pages maximum);
(3) Final, accepted, or complete draft publication or comparable non-confidential writing sample (10 pages maximum); and
(4) The name, title, institution, and email address of three (3) professional references. At least one of these references must have been your direct supervisor within the past three years. (Hesburgh Libraries search representatives will begin contacting professional references once selected candidates accept an invitation for a campus visit.)
Please name the submitted Acrobat file as follows:
hesburghlibraries_EASL_lnamefirstinitial
(Example: hesburghlibraries_EASL_savoiem)
Failure to comply with these directions may disqualify your application from being considered or delay review of your materials.
