Department: Music Library
Rank and Salary: Assistant Librarian – Associate Librarian ($55,993 – $69,331)
Position Availability: Immediately
Application deadline for first consideration: March 24, 2015
Description of Institution and Library
One of ten University of California campuses, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is located in Westwood Village, approximately five miles from the Pacific Ocean near Santa Monica. Comprised of the College of Letters and Science and 11 professional schools, the 419-acre campus features 163 buildings. UCLA has more than 4,000 faculty and academic staff and approximately 26,000 employees overall. Founded in 1919, UCLA offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and has more than 28,000 undergraduates and 12,000 graduate students. Academic excellence, faculty distinction, and a comprehensive curriculum are hallmarks of UCLA, which is a member of the Association of American Universities. Among the faculty are fourteen Nobel Laureates, twelve Rhodes Scholars, ten National Medal of Science winners, a Fields Medal Winner, eleven MacArthur Grant winners, and seventy-eight Guggenheim Fellows. UCLA is California’s largest university and is a model for public institutions of higher education. As the seventh largest employer in the region, UCLA generates almost $14 in economic activity for every $1 state taxpayers invest in UCLA and generates an annual $11.9 billion economic impact for the state of California.
Consistently ranked among the top 10 academic research libraries in North America, the UCLA Library is comprised of 10 major libraries and 11 library wide departments including the Southern Regional Library Facility, the remote storage facility for the southern UC campuses, all of which report to the University Librarian. In addition, there are 12 affiliated library units located on the campus. There are approximately 105 librarians on the campus, and the UCLA Library has a staff of approximately 300, and approximately 400 – 500 student employees. The Library has an organizational structure that includes the use of teams in conjunction with departments and units. The library collection consists of more than 9 million volumes and more than 78,000 current serial titles and an aggressively expanding electronic resources collection. The Library’s annual budget is in excess of $44 million; more than $10 million supports the acquisition of print and digital material, and the library is part of the California Digital Library. The UCLA Library is a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).
The Music Library provides access to one of the largest academic music collections in North America and the largest in Southern California. It supports the Herb Alpert School of Music, any class at UCLA with a music or audio component, and the general music community at UCLA and in southern California. UCLA is also home to important and extensive special collections in music through the UCLA Library Special Collections, the Ethnomusicology Archive, and several area studies centers. The Music Library’s collection includes subscriptions to almost every major online resource for music covering article databases, electronic books, and online audio. With approximately 80,000 books, 115,000 scores, over 100 journal subscriptions, almost 200,000 sound recordings in a variety of formats, as well as visual media and an exhaustive collection of facsimiles of music scores, the resources for music research and study span all genres of music from ancient times to today. Current staff includes 1 FTE librarian, 1 FTE temporary librarian, 3 FTE library assistants, and student assistants.
Besides providing services to those who study and enjoy music, the Music Library serves as a venue for music related events such as the Music Library Mid-Day Recital series. The Music Library’s Hugo and Christine Davise Fund for Contemporary Music supports both student and Los Angeles area performances and events related to Contemporary and New Music.
Position Duties:
Under the general direction of the Associate University Librarian for Sciences, Arts, and Music, the Music Inquiry and Research Librarian will provide undergraduate and graduate students with an entry into, and a firm foundation for, the study of music and will assist advanced scholars and faculty by:
• introducing music majors in the Herb Alpert School of Music to the study of music and sustaining them through their UCLA education;
• helping undergraduates who take large general music classes or courses in various disciplines with a music component;
• assisting undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to research topics in music, particularly multi-disciplinary, cross cultural, and contemporary themes;
• participating in evaluating and selecting materials to ensure that Library collections serve the vast variety of music programs offered at UCLA.
Specific duties and responsibilities include:
• Maximizing direct contact with students in person and through technologies.
• Embedding in music courses.
• Employing all technologies to develop instructional material, finding aids, and guides to music resources for students and researchers.
• Actively promoting the integration of information and media creation literacy competencies in academic programs across the School of Music curriculum.
• Providing information and establishing best practices for media creation literacy instruction to students and faculty.
• Assisting in developing programs, events and exhibits to display research accomplished at UCLA and featuring UCLA scholarship and library collections.
• Supporting classes outside of the School of Music but with a music component, including introducing music into appropriate classes in collaboration with librarians in the Powell Library (undergraduates) and the Young Research Library (primarily graduates in the humanities and social sciences).
• Promoting the scholarly resources for music provided by the UCLA Library, including Special Collections.
• Ensuring, with other Music Library staff, that UCLA’s music collections support the comprehensive study of music at UCLA.
• Complementing the knowledge of the existing staff to provide the expertise in genres of music currently lacking (particularly jazz and popular music).
• Exploring innovative ways to reach both undergraduate and graduate students with music research needs.
• Following the latest library trends and technologies applicable to teaching and learning.
• Engagement with UCLA music and other faculty in their research on music.
• Engagement in professional activities and associations.
Required Qualifications:
• ALA-accredited Master’s Degree in Library or Information Science OR significant graduate-level coursework toward such a degree OR equivalent education and experience (subject expertise combined with professional library education and/or experience).
• Strong knowledge in jazz, popular, and/or world musics.
• A thorough understanding of the research needs and the organization of scholarly materials in music and the humanities.
• Excellent understanding and experience with social media technologies.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to work with staff, students and faculty from diverse cultural backgrounds and in a dynamic and complex environment within a large organization.
• Demonstrated commitment to professional issues, demonstrated through strong interest in local or national committee work, research, publication, etc.
• Ability to follow directions from supervisors and to provide clear directions to staff and student employees.
• Ability to get to work reliably and on time and to be present in the workplace during normal working hours.
Desired Qualifications
• Experience in a music library.
• Undergraduate or graduate degree in music.
• Experience and knowledge of website maintenance using a content management system, particularly Drupal.
• Experience writing and designing LibGuides.
• Higher level ability to read, speak and understand a second European language, particularly Spanish.
General Information
Professional librarians at UCLA are academic appointees. Librarians at UCLA are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). They are entitled to appropriate professional leave, two days per month of vacation leave, one day per month of sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits. Relocation assistance provided.
Appointees to the librarian series at UC shall have professional backgrounds that demonstrate a high degree of creativity, teamwork, and flexibility. Such background will normally include a professional degree from an ALA-accredited library and information science graduate program. In addition to professional competence and quality of service within the library in the primary job, advancement in the librarian series requires professional involvement and contributions outside of the library, and/or university and community service, and/or scholarly activities. Candidates must show evidence or promise of such contributions.