Vacancy for Head of Digital Preservation at Yale University

Reporting to the Associate Director for Preservation Digital Strategies, the Head of Digital Preservation provides vision, leadership, and strategic direction for digital preservation, creating, and maintaining strategies and policies to ensure that collections are preserved and accessible. Advocates for sustainable stewardship and works with stakeholders to build considerations for digital preservation into every stage of the lifecycle. Plays an important role in team building and cultivates a supportive remote work culture. Works closely with the Associate Director to set unit goals and establish a vision for preservation and stewardship that aligns with the Library’s strategic directions. Raises awareness about the unit’s work, meets with colleagues to understand their needs, translates their requirements into sustainable technical solutions, and cultivates new partnerships related to digital preservation.

Applications should be submitted by Monday August 19 for initial review. We will hold virtual information sessions on Thursday July 25 at 11am ET and Tuesday July 30 at 1pm ET. Interested applicants are encouraged to attend. Link to the session: https://bit.ly/3VelxYs.

Directs the development of and provides oversight for a large-scale complex digital preservation program that encompasses the library’s digital preservation repository and born-digital accessioning service. Oversees the creation and implementation of policies and processes to preserve, manage, and ensure continued access to digital collections. Researches and investigates new tools, technologies and emergent strategies. Identifies new program opportunities. Manages, trains and supervises a largely remote 4-person team of digital preservation librarians and born digital specialist. Establishes metrics, tracks progress and reports on the unit’s work in support of a resource-informed stewardship model. Develops and leads cross-training initiatives to ensure skillsets are distributed across the team. Works closely with LIT, Yale ITS, and other stakeholders to develop and maintain a robust technical infrastructure and ensure workflow integration between systems. Maintains effective relationships with vendors providing systems and services. Partners with digital preservation repository product owner to ensure development requests to vendors meet Yale’s needs. Develops and maintains disaster recovery planning and policy for digital materials in coordination with other departments. Conducts and documents periodic infrastructure review. Partners with the Software Preservation and Emulation Program to coordinate outreach efforts, collaborate on projects, align goal setting and strategic planning efforts, and raise awareness of software preservation and emulation as methods of preserving enduring access to digital collections. Collaborates with Digital Special Collections & Access to develop processes, workflows, and systems integrations that facilitate access to digital collections materials. Leads outreach and consultation, serving as a resource for campus stakeholders, including Museums and Galleries, about best practices for digital stewardship and preservation. Advises subject specialists, librarians, and curators on the acquisition, preservation, and access of digital collection materials. Participates in library- and university-wide committees and task forces and in regional, national, and international professional activities.

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