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Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian, The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Posted November 4, 2016

The Japan Digital Research Center (JDRC) of the Fung Library at Harvard University seeks an innovative and collaborative information professional to serve as its Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian. This position is best suited for an individual with a strong interest in a range of activities in digital scholarship, including building new digital collections, developing services in support of research, teaching, learning, and managing digital projects, including collaborations with faculty and University library staff. The Librarian will engage with other units and libraries across the University and elsewhere to identify innovative and evolving digital tools and resources that advance scholarly investigation, while building upon the traditional cornerstones of research methodologies in the arts/humanities and social sciences disciplines.

Collection and Project Management:

  • Builds and manages a distinctive, interdisciplinary, responsive digital research collection in Japanese Studies in support of academic and teaching programs and to promote current services and collections.
  • Manages existing digital/web collections involving the projects on Japan’s Constitutional Revision and on the 2011 Japan Disasters and its aftermath, working closely with faculty, technology support, staff, and other partners to maintain and develop these resources for research, teaching, and outreach.
  • Provides proactive Japanese Studies research and curricular/instructional support to faculty, and partners with faculty and other library staff on digital scholarship projects at all stages including planning, proposal, design, development, maintenance, and preservation.
  • Identifies and evaluates current and emerging digital and born-digital resources, tools, and methodologies in Japanese Studies.
  • Experience and ability to speak to a range of library issues, including scholarly communication, copyright issues, digitalization, online tools and integration of information literacy skills. Remains current with advances in information technology’s impact on libraries and digital scholarship. Actively contributes to the profession.
  • Prepares and manages JDRC budget in close consultation with the Reischauer Institute administrative leadership.

Instruction and Outreach:

  • Maintains strong familiarity with academic and scholarly research practices.
  • Actively engages, communicates effectively, and develops strong working relationships with faculty, students, librarians, and other groups and partners throughout the University.
  • Seeks partnerships and works closely with faculty, departments, libraries and others to identify current and emerging scholarly projects for which digital tools and methodologies are appropriate and develops strategies focused on production and curation needs.
  • Prepares presentations, papers, and articles on the JDRC and its resources. Participates in meetings, workshops, symposia, and other related outreach activities.
  • Develops innovative ways to promote the JDRC. Works closely and collaboratively with Japanese Studies librarians on campus and elsewhere to develop and organize instructional workshops and orientation on digital resources.
  • Actively engages with and in the professional development of the East Asian library field.

Operations and Administration:

  • Participates with library units in the development of infrastructure and standards to support/preserve digital collections and scholarship.
  • Recommends priorities, policies, procedures for the identification, creation, conversion, preservation and storage of digital content.
  • Advises on library policy issues raised by digital resources such as copyright policy, intellectual freedom issues, fair use, e-privacy concerns, or censorship of Internet content.
  • Prepares serial collection for patron library use and circulation while exploring opportunities to acquire open online access to these resources.

Basic Qualifications

  • An ALA-accredited Master’s Degree in Library Science (MLS) or Library Information Science (MLIS) and/or advanced degree in relevant subject area or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  • Knowledge of Japanese Language.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of Japan and Japanese Studies.
  • Background in, knowledge of, and a record of achievement with digital scholarship and services, and experience with library technology, reference, instruction, and outreach services.
  • Demonstrated experience in project management.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of digital library standards for digitalization and metadata creation across all standard formats (text, images, moving images, audio, video, maps) and metadata domains (descriptive, technical, administrative).

Additional Qualifications

  • Bilingual or near-bilingual fluency in English and Japanese strongly preferred.
  • Broad knowledge of current and emerging digital resources in Japanese Studies both in English and Japanese
  • Demonstrated problem-solving and workflow-analysis skills, as well as aptitude for complex, analytical work with attention to detail and organization. Strong understanding of research methods.
  • Experience with digital arts/humanities and social sciences research tools and approaches (e.g. harvest crawls, text mining, data visualization, image analysis).
  • Experience with system administration and web servers. Experience developing and troubleshooting applications using scripting, programming and database languages.
  • Experience with one or more digital asset management (DAM) systems
  • Knowledge and demonstrated experience working with library XML standards
  • Self-directed and collaborative. Goal-oriented. Demonstrates ability to lead and promote change.
  • Commitment to providing high-quality patron service within a flexible and continually evolving academic library environment.

To apply: Please submit cover letter and resume to: Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian. More information about The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University is available at http://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/

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