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.

February 14, 2023

Publishing Librarian I/II

  • Wayne State University
  • Detroit, MI
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Essential Functions (Job Duties)

The Wayne State University Library System (WSULS) seeks an innovative, service-oriented Publishing Librarian to advance the University’s mission to create and advance knowledge, prepare a diverse student body to thrive, and positively impact local and global communities. Wayne State’s unique characteristics, as both an R1 research and an access institution in the heart of Detroit, offer the interested candidate the opportunity to advance equitable publishing practice in a rigorous academic environment, leveraging the power of peoples’ individual identities and diverse perspectives to produce scholarly content in multiple forms. As academic staff in the AAUP-AFT bargaining unit, the Publishing Librarian joins a collegial body of mutual support, and the opportunity to participate in shared governance with the university.

The successful candidate joins a long-standing library publishing program, which is a founding member of the Library Publishing Coalition. Within WSULS’ Discovery Services Unit, the digital publishing team supports active journals, open textbooks, and the University’s institutional repository. Alongside other WSULS units, the publishing team is working or has worked on open educational resources, digital pedagogy outreach and training materials, and digital humanities projects, as well as open-access backlist eBooks and journal archives from the university press. Candidates for this position may contribute to many of these publishing projects, or others that they may create. As we expand library publishing, WSULS seeks to further its leadership in digital-publishing workflows, infrastructures, and pedagogy and welcomes a librarian whose commitment to uncommon thinking in these areas will push forward our diversity of thought, embodied practice, and publication outreach. For more information on our current work, see http://publishing.library.wayne.edu.

Position Description:

The Publishing Librarian works within the Discovery Services Unit under the supervision of the Assistant Dean. The Library Publishing team is focused on sustainable open publishing, with a pedagogical focus on new practitioners and a commitment to supporting our campus in its engagement with the scholarly communication ecosystem. The successful candidate will work in collaboration with scholars from a variety of backgrounds, including faculty, librarians, students, and the broader community to conceive, enact, advance, and sustain digital, open, library-centered publishing and scholarship. This position has broad latitude to collaborate with partners within and outside the university to pursue advancements in areas including but not limited to new conceptions and outputs of library publishing, publishing workflows and competencies, digital publishing platforms, publishing pedagogy, and digital humanities. Publishing librarians often team with liaison librarian colleagues to support scholarly communication and copyright initiatives in the university. This position also supports Wayne State University library’s institutional repository (currently Bepress’s Digital Commons) in collaboration with the Library Publishing team, including ETD management, journal publishing, and outreach to students and faculty for projects appropriate to the IR.

Essential Job Functions:

  • Collaborate with partners inside and outside the library to conceive and support open scholarship, repository services, and other publishing-related initiatives.
  • Translate ideas developed in collaboration with partners into actionable workflows and infrastructure in the library, with an emphasis on open digital models.
  • Provide project management for ongoing Initiatives in the support and advancement of scholarly publishing services.
  • Provide consultation and support to librarians and the university community on issues related to scholarly publishing, copyright, and scholarly communications
  • Undertake reasonable efforts to remain knowledgeable about current developments in library publishing and related areas in librarianship
  • Contribute to the production activities of the publishing team.

Qualifications

  • Demonstrated ability to work both collaboratively and independently to manage projects and initiatives, to set priorities, and to adapt to changing workflows and tools.
  • Master’s degree in Library and/or Information Science from an ALA- accredited library school.
  • Evidence of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in an institutional setting.
  • Curiosity and a commitment to learn where knowledge gaps exist, including new tools and technologies.
  • Understanding of scholarly communication issues.
  • Competency in identifying, analyzing, and solving problems.
  • Highly developed written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Demonstrated experience or competency in one or more areas of professional practice in scholarly publishing and/or repository management.
  • Knowledge of publishing trends, issues, and strategies, and/or current digital publishing technologies, standards, and best practices.
  • Experience instantiating and/or working with the evolving ecosystem of digital tools, scholarly publishing platforms, and/or design software.
  • Experience teaching and/or providing digital publishing or repository outreach in an academic setting
  • Experience with metadata, or with a markup language like XML or HTML.
  • Experience with issues relating to copyright, fair use, or rights management.

Appointment/Benefits

This is a full-time, regular, 12-month, benefits-eligible appointment as Academic Staff, represented by the AAUP-AFT on an Employment Security Status track. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, employee/dependent life and long-term disability insurance, retirement savings plans, tuition assistance, and generous paid time off. The minimum starting salary for this position at Librarian I is $59,000 and the maximum salary for this position at Librarian II is $63,800. Salary and rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Questions can be directed to the chair of the search committee, Joshua Neds-Fox, at dp5745@wayne.edu.