RANK: A/P Faculty, LecturerDEPARTMENT: Publishing Strategy, Research & Informatics
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Reports to the Director, Publishing Strategy
Virginia Tech Libraries seek a full-time Digital Publishing Specialist with a passion for scholarly communication and an eagerness to grow with the latest trends and best practices to help continue to expand its publishing services into new and emerging areas of research and scholarship. Virginia Tech was an early leader in digital publishing, having hosted open access, peer-reviewed journals since 1989 and electronic theses and dissertations since 1996. The successful candidate will play an important role, in coordination with the Director of Publishing Strategy, in shaping the Library’s publishing services as they grow to meet the evolving needs of its community.
50%
Engages with faculty and students throughout the university to explore best solutions for digital publication of their work, leveraging evolving technologies for increasing global access to and discovery of Virginia Tech research and scholarship. The Library’s current publishing activities focus on journals and conference proceedings; future growth is expected in open educational resources and other digital media. Related duties include contributing to the promotion of the Library’s publishing services to the university community; ensuring that current publishing practices are reflected in departmental web sites; evaluating user satisfaction with the Library’s publishing resources and services.
40%
Manages new publishing resources, services, and projects; hires, trains, and supervises student assistants; migrates existing resources to new systems; and maintains legacy e-journals systems, databases, initiatives, and the like. Related duties include training faculty, staff, and students in the use of publishing systems; supporting digital publishing initiatives by providing technical and user support; performing routine systems maintenance. To be successful, the Digital Publishing Specialist must be able to collaborate effectively with other library and university units as needed to bring service activities and projects to completion.
10%
Handles confidential and sensitive information appropriately and in accordance with university and library policies and procedures; serves actively on relevant library committees or initiatives related to scholarly communication; maintains professional growth by keeping abreast of emerging areas in library publishing; and performs other duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications
● Master’s or other advanced degree, or bachelor’s degree and significant experience equivalent to an advanced degree.
● Experience in academic publishing or a related field.
● Knowledge of trends, issues, and strategies as well as current digital publishing technologies, standards, and best practices.
● Strong interpersonal skills to facilitate work with faculty, staff, and students in sustaining today’s evolving digital publishing service environments, ensuring the quality, integrity, and curation of digital information.
● Experience planning and managing projects, including setting priorities.
● Demonstrated ability to work effectively independently and as part of a team.
● Supervisory experience.
● Demonstrated oral and written communication skills.
● Experience using technology to deliver digital content including practical knowledge of HTML, CSS, and XML, as well as current publishing and content management systems.
Preferred Qualifications
● A master’s degree or higher in information science or related discipline.
● Experience using open source technologies, particularly related to publishing (e.g., OJS).
● Experience with web development and/or programming (any language).
● Experience with university presses or similar publishers.
● Knowledge of UNIX (e.g., Sun, Linux), CGI; relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL); experience writing and adapting high level programming languages.
Job Board
The LPC maintains a list of jobs that incorporate library publishing roles. To be included in this list, the position must be located administratively in a library, or report directly to a library-based supervisor. The primary function(s) of the position must directly engage in the creation, dissemination, and/or curation of scholarly, creative, and/or educational works. Administrative positions that do not directly engage in these functions may be included if they include supervisory responsibility primarily for employees who are performing these functions.