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Manager, Contemporary Collections, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA

Posted February 19, 2021

Description:

Harvard Business School’s Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) is actively hiring for our next Manager, Contemporary Collections. We are looking for a customer centric manager who has a teamwork-based approach to their work. We seek someone who is dedicated to identifying and making the most relevant and reliable information accessible to a variety of customers. This role is key to increasing the diversity of voices within the Baker Library collection.

The Manager, Contemporary Collections coordinates all aspects of the collections process – the full cycle of selection, discovery, access support, and impact/use analysis for content licensed or owned by the Harvard Business School and Harvard University communities. Our information ecosystem is complex. It encompasses resources that are available to all of Harvard University as well as content available only to the HBS community. The ability to successfully negotiate content licenses and coordinate technical implementation across organizations is imperative.

This role reports into the Director, Curriculum & Learning Services (CLS). The Manager, Contemporary Collections will be a member of the CLS management team and will be responsible for actively contributing to the strategic direction, decision making, and new product/service development across CLS. CLS consists of five teams: Access Services, Strategic Research Services, Research & Development, Customer Engagement and Contemporary Collections.

Working in a matrixed environment, this crucial role coordinates the work of a cross-departmental team of librarians, information professionals, and technology support specialists. This role ensures that our community has access to the information resources needed to support their research, teaching and learning while also being a good steward of HBS’s human and financial resources.

Job-Specific Responsibilities:

  • Articulates, implements and leads KLS Contemporary Collections strategy development in order to maintain a preeminent and diverse collection to achieve HBS’ mission
  • Responsible for the selection of material in all formats; makes decisions on retention and preservation based on collection strategy, budget and use statistics.
  • Develops and implements strategic alignment of Contemporary Collections with faculty data and content acquisition services (e.g. research data management program and faculty subscription service)
  • Accountable for a $2 million budget
  • Coordinates authentication environment for KLS Contemporary Collections
  • Ensures information resources are easily discoverable
  • Provides reference and research support to better address customer needs
  • As a manager, actively contributes to the decision making and strategic direction of the CLS department
  • Other relevant duties as assigned
  • May have direct reports

Basic Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Master’s degree in Library, Information Science or other related subject areas (ex: Business, Management, or Economics) or 10 years related experience
  • At least 4 years’ experience in an academic or corporate library in a collections or research role
  • 2+ years of direct people management experience
  • Direct responsibility for a complex budget
  • Demonstrated success cultivating vendor relationships, negotiating contracts and managing a collections budget
  • Ability to build customer relationships, set priorities, meet multiple deadlines, and share work/projects with a research team

Additional Qualifications and Skills:

  • Knowledge of emerging trends in information access and authentication
  • Able to produce high quality work under tight time constraints
  • Experience managing an annual budget of at least $1 million
  • Demonstrated ability to review and negotiate legal contracts
  • Hands-on working knowledge of business information resources, such as Bloomberg, Refinitiv, S&P Global Marketing, and/or WRDS
  • Ability to collaborate and contribute to various group projects within the department, across Knowledge & Library Services, and the Harvard Library.
  • Work effectively within a matrixed environment
  • Excellent communication, presentation, and writing skills.
  • Exhibit excellent critical thinking skills to solve problems and deliver the best customer experience.
  • Our expectations are that employees of HBS adhere to and represent our Community Values. They are:
    • Respect for the rights, differences, and dignity of others
    • Honesty and integrity in dealing with all members of the community
    • Accountability for personal behavior

How to Apply:

The original job posting with full description can be found here. Apply using the job portal found there.

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