Visiting Illinois Distributed Museum Coordinator
University Library
Academic Professional
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Position Available: The expected start date is as soon as possible after the closing date. This is a 100%, 2-Year Visiting Academic Professional appointment, with the potential of becoming permanent.
Responsibilities: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks an innovative and motivated professional for the position of Visiting Illinois Distributed Museum Coordinator. Reporting to the Assistant University Archivist, this visiting academic professional position will oversee a campus-wide editorial process to develop content for the Illinois Distributed Museum (http://distributedmuseum.illinois.edu/), a website for telling the story of innovation at the University. The successful candidate will receive, edit, and make available digital archival content from campus units; coordinate communication and effort between project stakeholders in the University Archives/Library, the Spurlock Museum, and the iSchool; and oversee website development with technical staff in the Library.
Specific responsibilities will vary from week to week but may include:
- Coordinating a campus-wide editorial effort across academic units to develop text, visual, and audiovisual web content related to the history of innovation at the University of Illinois
- Establishing and maintaining sound partnerships with faculty and academic professional staff in campus units with the goal of developing text and web content
- Serving as project lead with web developers to establish website functionality requirements, and subsequently testing and refining website architecture
- Working with faculty and staff in the University Archives/Library, the Spurlock Museum, and the iSchool to ensure digital materials are preserved and accessible, in keeping with best practices in archives and museums
- Authoring grant applications to garner additional resources
Academic Professional employees are encouraged to use “investigation time” to pursue areas of interest, not directly in support of an immediate program need, in accordance with the University Library’s policy on Investigation Time for Academic Professional Employees (http://www.library.illinois.edu/administration/human/resources/investigationtime.html). Some investigations originating in this manner may evolve into regular work assignments or production activities.
Environment: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library is a leader in the delivery of user services, and active programs in information, instructional, access, and scholarly services that help the Library to maintain its place at the intellectual heart of the campus. The Library also holds one of the preeminent research collections in the world, encompassing more than 13 million volumes and a total of more than 23 million items. The Library is committed to maintaining the strongest collections and service programs possible, and to engaging in research, development, and scholarly practice - all of which support the University's missions of teaching, research, and public engagement. The Library employs approximately 90 faculty members, and more than 300 academic professionals, staff, and graduate assistants. For more information, see: http://www.library.illinois.edu/.
The University Archives' permanent staff includes seven archivists, two academic professional, graduate assistants, and hourly student assistants operating from three service locations: Room 19 Library, the Archives Research Center, and the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music. University Archives holdings include official records of the university, papers of prominent faculty and alumni, and associated manuscript collections and records, papers, photographs, audiovisual materials, and related historical collections of professional and public service associations.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Strong oral and written communication skills
- Demonstrated experience using web content management systems
- Experience editing or writing specialized content for the general public
- Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment and collaborate with diverse stakeholders
Desired Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree (or higher) in Library/Information Science, Museum Studies, Public History or a related field
- Workplace experience in project management or project coordination
- Working knowledge of museum interpretive practice
- Working knowledge of metadata standards relevant to museum and/or archival objects
- Experience with software development processes from a user experience perspective
Salary and Rank: Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience and credentials.
Terms of Appointment: Twelve-month appointment; 24 annual vacation days; 11 annual paid holidays; 12 annual sick-leave days (cumulative), plus an additional 13 sick-leave days (non-cumulative) available, if needed, each year; health insurance requiring a small co-payment is provided to employee (with the option to purchase coverage for spouse and dependents); required participation in State Universities Retirement System (SURS) (8% of annual salary is withheld and is refundable upon termination), with several options for participation in additional retirement plans; newly-hired employees are covered by the Medicare portion of Social Security and are subject to its deduction.
Campus and Community: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a comprehensive and major public land-grant university (Doctoral/Research University-Extensive) that is ranked among the best in the world. Chartered in 1867, it provides undergraduate and graduate education in more than 150 fields of study, conducts theoretical and applied research, and provides public service to the state and the nation. It employs 3,000 faculty members who serve 31,000 undergraduates and 12,000 graduate and professional students; approximately 25% of faculty receives campus-wide recognition each year for excellence in teaching. More information about the campus is available at www.illinois.edu. The University is located in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, which have a combined population of 100,000 and are situated about 140 miles south of Chicago, 120 miles west of Indianapolis, and 170 northeast of St. Louis. The University and its surrounding communities offer a cultural and recreational environment ideally suited to the work of a major research institution. For more information about the community, visit: http://illinois.edu/about/community/community.html or http://www.ccchamber.org/.
To Apply: To ensure full consideration, please complete your candidate profile at https://jobs.illinois.edu/ and upload a letter of interest, resume, contact information including email addresses for three professional references. Applications not submitted through this website will not be considered. For questions, please call: 217-333-8169.
Deadline: In order to ensure full consideration we urge candidates to submit application materials on or before June 22, 2017.
The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer.
Illinois is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas who embrace and value diversity and inclusivity. www.inclusiveillinois.illinois.edu