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Employment Opportunities
Library Director
Overview
The New Hampshire Historical Society seeks a library director to oversee all aspects of its research library’s collections and activities. The full-time permanent position reports to the executive director.
The library director is responsible for providing leadership, management, and planning for the library, including overseeing staff and volunteers, establishing and implementing policies and procedures, ensuring the safety and preservation of collections, developing and maintaining budgets, planning and managing projects, and developing long-range priorities for collections development, management, preservation, and access. The successful candidate will be forward thinking with a deep appreciation for the past and an unwavering belief in the value of collections-based institutions.
Founded in 1823, the New Hampshire Historical Society is the nation’s fifth-oldest statewide historical society. The mission of the Society is to educate a diverse public about the significance of New Hampshire’s past and its relationship to our lives today. The Society serves thousands of children and adults each year through its research library, museum, educational programs, and publications. The Society is located in Concord, the state’s capital city. It is an independent nonprofit organization that receives no financial support from the state government.
The Society’s library maintains a unique and historically significant collection of over 50,000 published items: monographs, pamphlets, theses, dissertations, and periodicals focusing on the history and genealogy (state, county, and local) of New Hampshire and Northern New England. Manuscript collections document family, business, political and cultural activities in the state. Among the 3,000 manuscript collections are papers of Revolutionary War generals John Stark (“Live Free or Die”) and John Sullivan, and the papers of Franklin Pierce, Daniel Webster, John P. Hale, and John Farmer (the father of modern genealogy). The library houses 600 eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New Hampshire newspaper titles (originals and on microfilm). Over 200,000 photographic prints and negatives provide a visual record of over 200 New Hampshire communities, people, and events. Collections of broadsides (5,000) and ephemera items, as well as 2,300 maps, document four centuries of life in New Hampshire.
The Society has 3,500 members and donors and a mostly unrestricted endowment of $10 million. The fiscal year 2012 operating budget is $2,195,470. The organization is financially stable and has just embarked on a multi-million dollar campaign to:
- invest in technology and electronic access to the library and museum collections;
- build a comprehensive online resource center for New Hampshire history to engage cultural heritage institutions and schools;
- ensure the Society’s 1911 landmark headquarters and library building at 30 Park Street, Concord, is energy-efficient and provides for the safety of the collections;
- and strengthen the organization’s financial foundation.
Responsibilities
Department Management
- Direct and manage the day-to-day work of the library, which includes one full-time librarian, one part-time assistant librarian, one library receptionist, and about twelve volunteers.
- Set work plan priorities for library staff and volunteers (in support of the Society’s business plan)
- Prepare and track the annual library budget to meet income and expense goals
- Prepare monthly library participation reports and other reports as necessary
- Recruit, hire, train, and manage library staff and volunteers
- Hire and manage project consultants
Collections Stewardship
Work with the Staff Acquisitions Committee and the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, oversee the management of the printed, manuscript, and special collections materials:
- ensure highest professional standards of care and handling of library collections (condition assessment, conservation, storage, security, monitoring)
- establish and maintain library collections management standards (acquisition, accessioning, documentation, cataloging, inventorying, digitizing, deaccessioning, and lending)
- manage library collections management systems
- evaluate new technologies and processes to expand or enhance collections stewardship and access
- make collections policy recommendations
- approve of all gifts, purchases, and disposals of printed, manuscript, and special collections materials
- identify collecting priorities
- acknowledge gifts to the library collections and oversee the production of quarterly donor reports for the Board of Trustees
- serve as staff liaison to the Collections Committee
Fundraising/Development
- Seek and write grants (and/or cause grants to be written) to support library collection processing and care activities
- Build face-to-face, professional working relationships with library donors to significantly expand the circle of donors and levels of support
- Work with executive director, cultivate prospective donors to the library collections and participate in gift solicitation for the library
- Work with the director of development, plan, manage, and participate in special library events to strengthen relationships with current members, acquire new members, and promote the library
Outreach
- Represent the Society with the media when appropriate
- Present off-site programs at other historical societies, libraries, etc.
- Work with the director of education, assist in planning public programs
Strategy and Research
- Participate as a member of the senior management team in long-range planning and staff policy issues
Miscellaneous
- Other duties and special projects as assigned
Required Qualifications
- Solid understanding and appreciation of the New Hampshire Historical Society’s mission and the ability to effectively communicate that mission
- Master of Library and Information Science, or equivalent degree, with a specialization in archival studies or special collections, and an undergraduate degree in history, American Studies, or relevant academic field
- Minimum of five years successful experience in archives and/or special collections
- Strong interest in and knowledge of New England and United States history
- Experience in soliciting, acquiring, organizing, and maintaining collections
- Demonstrated success with the implementation and management of collections and digital assets management systems
- Knowledge of current practices related to the digitization of collections and trends providing electronic access to collections
- Technology competence and a commitment to learning and applying new technologies to library operations
- Proven management experience and evidence of leadership, budgeting, project management, and organization skills
- Supervisory experience with demonstrated ability to foster teamwork and collaboration
- Excellent public speaking, writing, and interpersonal communications skills
- Professional, mature, energetic, hands-on, friendly, and flexible
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree in American history, American Studies, or relevant academic field
- Experience working in a museum setting or in supporting exhibition development
The New Hampshire Historical Society is an equal opportunity employer. The position will remain open until filled.
To apply, please send cover letter, including salary expectations, and resume in PDF, to Joan Desmarais, Assistant Executive Director, at jdesmarais@nhhistory.org. Subject line of the e-mail should read: Library Director Application [your last name].
PDF Version of Position Description
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