Administrative Services Manager - Special Collections
About the role
The Special Collections Manager leads professional standards and best practices for cultural and archival collections, program development, outreach activities, and reference work. Performs supervisory and administrative duties involved in overseeing the daily operations of the Nashville Room, Genealogy, Civil Rights Room, Votes for Women, and The Banner collections, programs, collection digitization projects, exhibitions, and the public services team at the Main Library.
The Special Collections Division at the Nashville Public Library is a liberal arts laboratory for imagination, active experimentation, and dynamic exchange. They provide innovative approaches to research, access, and pedagogy while skillfully curating materials related to Nashville history, human rights, civil rights, women’s history, and the local institutional memory. Through these efforts, they engage communities in the process of discovery that lies at the heart of archival endeavors.
A city with a great library is a great city, and that’s very true for Nashville. With nearly three million visits per year—and a collection of almost two million items—Nashville Public Library (NPL) is Music City’s gateway to lifelong learning, growth, and community connection.
Responsibilities
- Performs administrative duties.
- Supervises employees, assigns and reviews work, evaluates employees, and approves leave requests.
- Sets a vision and formulates goals, targets, policies, plans, and procedures for the Special Collections Division (SCD).
- Oversees and directs archival and collection activities, including processing, collection maintenance, the creation of finding aids, acquisitions, and donor relations.
- Directs activities of employees involved in preservation of materials.
- Directs cataloging of documents and materials.
- Directs, coordinates, schedules, and evaluates programming and activities.
- Works with administrative staff to prepare budgets.
- Oversees and coordinates implementation of grant-funded programs.
- Participates in library committee work.
- Inspires Special Collections staff in creative ventures to provide positive and responsive customer service.
- Plans, prioritizes, and organizes work to achieve objectives.
- Conducts group in-service and individual training as needed.
- Performs the most difficult or complex professional library work.
- Develops and maintains library materials collections.
- Manages the continued growth and development of digitization projects and implements new projects as they arise, including identifying and evaluating potential digitization projects.
- Selects materials for digitization, resolves intellectual property and privacy issues, and ensures quality and consistency of digital records and metadata.
- Keeps abreast of new trends in Library and Information Science, Archives, and Public History.
- Maintains affiliations with professional library organizations.
- Attends continuing education and networking events.
- Nurtures partnerships and collaborations with community organizations.
- Confers with public officials and members of the community.
- Attends and/or speaks at community meetings.
- Manages key funding opportunities and partnerships.
- Networks with key partners regularly.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in History, Museum Studies, or a related field and five (5) years of professional library experience, in which three (3) years must include supervisory experience.
- Candidates with accreditations earned in a foreign institute are encouraged to apply.
- All employees of the Metropolitan Government shall be residents of the State of Tennessee or become residents of the state within six (6) months of employment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master’s in Library Science or related field.
- Experience in curating, managing, preserving, and providing access to special collections based on current best practices.
- Experience using digital platforms to curate, promote, and share collection materials.
- Fluent bilingual language skills.