Special Collections Assistant

Augustana College is a selective liberal arts and sciences college of 2,500 students, including 26 percent first generation college students, 23 percent Pell Grant students, 24 percent students of color, and 12 percent international students. Our beautifully wooded and largely residential campus is located in Rock Island, IL, a diverse Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities metropolitan area along the Mississippi River with 400,000 residents about three hours west of Chicago.

Strengthening our diverse and inclusive community is central to the college's mission and strategic plan. We seek applicants with an interest in fostering rigorous, inclusive, and high-impact learning environments for a diverse student body. Details about Augustana College, our expectations of the faculty, the selection process, and the Quad Cities all are available at Teaching at Augustana.

Job Description:

Job Title: Special Collections Assistant Revised: November 2024

Status: Non-exempt Full-time 12-month schedule

Reports To: Special Collections Librarian

Overview: Augustana's Special Collections, located within the Thomas Tredway Library, collects, preserves, and provides access to the college's rare books and unique archival materials. The special collections assistant?by participating in the provision of researcher services, management of collections, and mentoring of student employees?forms a key support to the department's mission of providing active, engaged learning opportunities for students; facilitating original research by students, faculty, staff, and outside researchers; and conducting community outreach on campus and in the Quad Cities area. The assistant's job duties are carried out under the supervision of the special collections librarian, but with a high degree of accountability and the autonomy to work independently.

Responsibilities:

• Works collaboratively with the special collections librarian on departmental planning and projects
• Provides reference and in-depth research assistance to Augustana students, faculty members, administrative offices, alumni, and members of the public in person or by telephone, email, and/or traditional mail
• Mentors and instructs student employees working on projects involving digitization, outreach programming, preservation, collection development, reference, and retrieval/shelving
• Supports the department's teaching and learning efforts by preparing materials for classroom use and serving as a liaison for course-related reference inquiries
• Shares responsibility for overseeing the reading room, including scheduling researcher appointments, ensuring policies and procedures are enforced, retrieving collection materials, maintaining statistics for annual reporting, assisting students and patrons with physical and electronic resources, and staffing the reading room desk in the absence of student employees
• Manages the fulfillment of reproduction requests and routes publication permission requests and donation inquiries to the special collections librarian
• Coordinates shelving materials, shifting collections, cleaning collections, and shelf-reading/inventorying collections as needed
• Assists the special collections librarian with organizing, describing, and preserving collection materials of various types (such as photographs, vertical files, books, and/or manuscript materials)
• Supports the development and stewardship of archival and rare book collections that reflect the diversity of campus and the local community
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements:

Education: Bachelor's degree required

Experience & Skills:

• Prior work experience in a library setting; prior work experience in an archives, rare books, or special collections environment is preferred, but not required
• Familiarity with local/regional history or a willingness to cultivate such knowledge
• Ability to understand and appreciate the mission of a residential liberal arts college and to work effectively in a fast-paced environment with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and outside researchers
• Some supervisory experience and/or experience working with college students
• Excellent organizational skills; oral and written communication skills; analytical, problem-solving, and project management skills; attention to detail; and ability to work with minimal supervision
• Strong technological skills, especially Microsoft Office and Google Apps; willingness and ability to learn additional library and educational applications?such as ExLibris Alma, ArchivesSpace, and ContentDM?as needed
• Strong service orientation with sensitivity to the needs of users at all skill levels
• Ability to maintain a positive and welcoming attitude in the face of shifting priorities

Physical Requirements: Ability to lift 25 pounds on a regular basis. Ability to listen, hear, speak, read, climb stairs, bend, stoop, and stand for intermittently long periods of time.

Additional Information:

Augustana College is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Augustana College provides equal opportunity to all qualified employees and applicants without regard to race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, and any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.

Application Instructions:

Note: This job description is subject to change and is not designed to be a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required by the employee.