Research and Instruction Librarians, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

Posted January 26, 2018

Research and Instruction Librarian (Two Openings), Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

 

Wellesley College seeks two highly motivated and creative social sciences Research & Instruction Librarians devoted to public service in a liberal arts college environment.

We seek candidates who take an expansive approach to the work of libraries, to the possibilities afforded by information technologies for achieving the college’s goals for student and faculty work, and to the integration of their work across the team, the organization, and the college.

The Librarians will work collaboratively as key members of the Research Services team to build a community of students who are information literate and confident lifelong learners. These Librarians will act as liaisons to social sciences and some related interdisciplinary departments, offering innovative support for the teaching, learning, and academic research in social sciences disciplines. In this capacity, one position will be responsible for social and behavioral sciences disciplines, while the other position will be responsible for historical, social, and ethical studies disciplines.

The Librarians will continually assess social science disciplinary needs, seeking thoughtful ways to address them through collaborations with faculty and fellow instructors on assignment design, integrated instruction, individual consultations, and support for independent learning. As part of the deeply merged Research and Instruction Support team of librarians and instructional technologists, the Librarians support faculty and students in all disciplines in the exploration and application of new technologies and methodologies for digital scholarship and scholarly inquiry.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and provide innovative and effective library instruction and in-depth research support for faculty and students in liaison disciplines.

• Develop and provide support for quantitative and/or qualitative data use, interpretation, visualization, and management in close collaboration with Research and Instructional Support colleagues, including the GIS and Data Instructional Technology Librarian.

• Create programming, resources, projects, and other forms of support for digital scholarship in one or more areas such as network analysis, text analysis/mining, image analysis, mapping, or other technologies or methodologies.

• Work with collections librarians on general collection development in liaison disciplines. Advocate for collection development and systems improvements or adoption in support of the social sciences, especially around the topics of data management and data visualization.

• Keep abreast of scholarly trends, resources, and new technologies in liaison disciplines with a view toward their application in research and instruction.

• Other duties as assigned.

   

Required

• Master’s degree in Library and Information Science or related discipline from an ALA-accredited institution.

• Academic background in a behavioral or social science field such as political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, or history, and/or significant experience supporting the social sciences.

• Demonstrated experience and comfort providing effective instruction and consultations.

• Interest in following new developments in social science data gathering techniques and sources, analysis, and visualization.

• Ability to collaboratively tackle problems and new projects with enthusiasm, tact, and humor.

• Comfort with risk taking and change in a rapidly evolving profession.

• Interest in offering a wide variety of campus support in addition to core/traditional responsibilities, as part of a merged Library and Technology organization.

   

Preferred

• MLS and 3-­5 years relevant experience

• Experience identifying and gathering data sets (IPUMS, ICPSR, census or survey data, etc.)

• Experience with quantitative and/or qualitative analysis techniques and software packages (SAS, SPSS, Stata, R, Atlas.ti, NVivo).

• Experience with at least one area of digital scholarship and data visualization (network analysis, text analysis/mining, mapping, digital publishing and archives, etc.)

• Experience developing modules for online or blended learning settings.

• Experience with assessment projects, particularly learning assessment or long-term (1 year or longer) assessment projects.