Head of Library Access Services

Description

Northern Kentucky University is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access institution. We embrace inclusiveness, equity, and global awareness in all dimensions of our work and seek excellence through diversity among our students, administrators, faculty, and staff. Application by members of diverse groups is encouraged.

Purpose of Position

The W. Frank Steely Library at Northern Kentucky University seeks a collaborative, visionary, and service-oriented individual to serve as Head of Library Access Services. This role provides leadership and guidance for a suite of services including: affordability and open educational resources, circulation, course reserves and copyright guidance to the instructional community, document delivery, consortial resource sharing, media collections, disability services, space partnerships located in the Library, and the Library’s integrated public service points where customers get assistance with general information needs, first level of reference, and technology. This faculty position requires a strong commitment to public services coupled with a vision for using emerging technologies and evidence-based decision practices to develop, implement, and assess services. The Access Services Department consists of four full-time staff employees, one faculty librarian employee, and a number of student employees. This position has faculty status.

The W. Frank Steely Library provides a wide range of library services to support the University’s commitment to its Success by Design strategic framework, which promotes student success by embracing inclusiveness, equity, global awareness, and academic needs of students and faculty in each academic college. Library faculty and staff have enhanced traditional services to better address 21st century information needs and are collaborative partners across campus.

NKU is a public comprehensive university located in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan area. The university delivers innovative, learner-centered education and engages in impactful scholarly and creative activities, all of which empower students for fulfilling careers and meaningful lives while contributing to the social and economic vitality of the region. NKU has almost 14,000 students, over 2,000 faculty and staff. It offers 79 undergraduate degree programs, master’s degrees in 21 disciplines, graduate certificates in 15 areas, two doctoral programs, a law degree, and in a partnership with the University of Kentucky and St. Elizabeth Hospital opened a medical school in the fall of 2019.


Primary Responsibilites

Leadership and Supervision

• Leads and supervises full-time employees, including hiring, onboarding, training, determining workloads, delegating responsibilities, providing direction, coaching, mentoring, and monitoring and evaluating job performance.
• Leads and promotes the operations of the Library’s integrated service points that provide desk and roving assistance for first level reference questions, disability services, technology lending, circulation, course reserves, copyright, document delivery, and other transactions.
• Leads the coordination of the Library’s Research Help service, which provides in-person and virtual reference to the NKU community. Collaborates with faculty librarians and Access Services staff and student employees to maintain a high level of service through our on-call and consultation model. Reviews and updates documentation, onboards new librarians to this service, and analyzes data from the service in order to make data-informed decisions about this model.
• Oversees the Library’s circulation and interlibrary loan system. Captures, analyzes, and assesses transactional and performance data from those systems to determine trends and develop strategies to improve the library experience for students, faculty, and staff.
• Oversees the Library’s course materials affordability program, which includes a growing suite of services including open educational resources, textbook affordability, course reserves, and the University Connect and Persist (UCAP) textbook lending library partnership.
• Analyzes and manages workflows and processes to improve delivery, speed, effectiveness, and accuracy of resource sharing, including working with consortium partners, such as Kentucky Virtual Library to ensure effective operations with courier services, etc.
• Liaises with campus partners who are located in Steely Library, for example those who are providing writing or academic tutoring services.
• Works with colleagues to develop a team environment that embraces diversity, inclusiveness, and equity.
• Collaborates with senior library leadership and University Police to ensure optimal functioning of the physical building from a user-centric focus and to manage emergency situations. Coordinates opening and closing the library.
• Participates in Library and departmental strategic planning.
• The department head may occasionally need to work evenings or weekends. The incumbent may need to flex their schedule occasionally due to staff absences and when the library hours change during extended study hours and intercessions.
  

Service

• Participates in Library and campus-wide committees.

Other

• Contributes to the Library’s Research Help services by providing consultation availability and staffing chat services. 
• Other duties as assigned.

Any candidate who is offered this position will be required to go through a pre-employment criminal background check as mandated by state law. Northern Kentucky University is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access/Affirmative Action institution. We embrace inclusiveness, equity, and global awareness in all dimensions of our work and seek excellence through diversity among our students, administrators, faculty, and staff. Application by members of diverse groups is encouraged.

Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

• Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library or information science program or an ALA-approved foreign equivalent.
• Experience in an academic, public or comparable library environment in a variety of access, affordability, or public services-related functions such as: circulation, interlibrary loan, document delivery, copyright, course reserves, open educational resources, and/or reference.
• Strong customer service skills and commitment to providing excellent service in a diverse, fast-paced environment, including the ability to resolve issues in a professional and respectful manner.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to guide projects that require collaboration and coordination with internal and/or external partners from initial idea to completion.
• Supervisory experience and/or evidence of the ability to be an effective team leader who fosters an inclusive, efficient, and collegial workplace.

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with and/or knowledge of how to effectively lead course materials affordability services relevant to academic libraries.
• Experience and/or evidence of the ability to manage library reference services, including the ability to make data-informed service decisions.
• Demonstrated experience improving workflows in access services areas by collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Exemplary interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, with the ability to establish and sustain positive working relationships with all levels of personnel (administrators, faculty, staff, and student employees) and with external constituencies.
• Ability to create an exciting, future-oriented library.
• Ability to lead staff and workflows/processes in support of strategic goals.
• Ability to work well both independently and in a collaborative environment, with strong project management skills to lead and/or coordinate multiple projects.
• Ability to engage collaboratively, creatively, effectively and to provide innovative and exceptional service to a diverse clientele.
• Knowledge of current and emerging technologies as applied to access and public services.
• Knowledge and understanding of key issues and trends that affect academic libraries or higher education.