Project Curator for Women in Politics Collections - The Bancroft Library

About the role

The Bancroft Library is hiring a Curator for its Women in Politics collections to steward, develop, and interpret its holdings of manuscripts, archives, and other materials documenting the history of women in politics in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with curatorial colleagues, Oral History Center staff, and partners across the UC Berkeley Library system to build and steward collections of lasting importance, relevance, and interconnectivity, identifying historic gaps and areas of strategic opportunity across the broad chronological and geographic scope of the library's holdings that document women in politics.
• Appraise and select materials for acquisition through donation or purchase across manuscripts, archives, visual materials, digital media, and all formats of print materials.
• Keep abreast of evolving legal and ethical considerations for provenance, intellectual property rights, privacy, and respectful stewardship of cultural heritage materials.
• Apply resource-sensitive collecting practices through the understanding and use of Total Cost of Stewardship tools and frameworks.
• Foster collaborative relationships with communities and individuals whose histories are documented in the collections, including activists, elected officials, political organizations, and social and civil rights movements and organizations.
• Partner with Bancroft Library leadership, the Friends of The Bancroft Library, and UC Berkeley Library Development Office to build and nurture philanthropic support.
• Collaborate with Bancroft Technical Services on appraisal and accessioning, cataloging, archival processing, and appropriate levels of arrangement and description to ensure that collections documenting women's political engagement are discoverable and accessible to researchers.
• Work with Bancroft Public Services colleagues to foster collection use by faculty, students, researchers, and the general public.
• Participate in the fellowship selection committee.
• Participate in public and research services activities, and ensure excellent service, friendly reception, and positive research interactions for all researchers.
• Draw on the library's extensive holdings documenting women's political history to prepare and lead instruction sessions, including material evaluation and selection, lesson plan development, and collaboration with faculty on assignments and learning outcomes.
• Promote inclusive teaching practices and accessibility in service and program development.
• Highlight under-researched materials and interpret collections for diverse audiences through exhibitions, publications, lectures, tours, presentations, and conferences.
• Develop public programs and events in collaboration with Bancroft staff, the Oral History Center, library colleagues, and campus and community partners.
• Contribute to outreach activities, blogs, social media, library publicity, and public events that raise awareness of the library's collections documenting women in politics and activism.
• Function as part of a curatorial team sustaining collection development, scholarly and educational outreach, description, digitization, preservation, and research.
• Participate in library projects, committees, policy decisions, and strategic planning.
• Serve as liaison with other Library selectors, relevant library and academic departments, and other campus museums and collecting institutions, including the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, the Hearst Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Ethnic Studies Library.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the UC Berkeley Library system to identify opportunities for cross-collection research and programming related to women's political history.
• Represent the Bancroft and contribute to professional organizations at local, regional, national, and international levels, advancing the visibility of the library's collections and scholarly engagement.

Qualifications

• A Master's degree in Library Science or a related field from an ALA-accredited institution.
• At least 3 years of experience in a similar role, preferably in a library setting focused on women's history or political history.
• Experience working with diverse communities and stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of archival principles and practices, including appraisal, selection, and processing.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and external partners.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.
• Knowledge of digital collections management and preservation practices.
• Experience with public speaking and outreach activities.

Skills

• Strong research and analytical skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Experience with digital collections management and preservation practices.

Benefits

The Bancroft Library offers a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Retirement plan with employer match.
• Group health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Flexible spending accounts for medical and dependent care expenses.
• Life insurance and disability coverage.
• Professional development leave and vacation leave.
• Access to employee discounts and services.

Pay

The UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and salary point at appointment. See the following table(s) for the current salary scale(s) for this position: TABLE 26B REPRESENTED LIBRARIAN SERIES FISCAL YEAR SALARY SCALE. A reasonable full-time salary estimate for this position is $83,162 to $95,010.

Schedule

This is a full-time position with 100% percent time commitment.