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First Year Experience Librarian

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Position description

First Year Experience Librarian

UC San Diego is committed to supporting academic excellence and diversity within the faculty, staff, and student body.
The UC San Diego Library is seeking a creative librarian to serve as a liaison to the university’s First Year Experience Program, work with undergraduate-focused campus programs, and collaborate with instructional designers and teaching librarians to deliver innovative general instruction. The First Year Experience Librarian will promote the success of freshmen and transfer students and will interact with campus units which focus on student success and retention. This new position is expected to plan and carry out experimental and innovative activities which will be a mix of instructional activities and outreach, providing the right candidate with exciting opportunities to try new things and create new programming. This position reports to the Instruction Coordinator within the Library’s Learning Services Program.

The University and the Library
With 36,000 students, UC San Diego is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through excellence in education and research at the undergraduate, graduate, professional school and postdoctoral levels. For more than a decade, UC San Diego has been recognized as one of the top 10 public universities in the nation by US News & World Report and for the third year in a row as the 14th best university in the world by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2016, for the seventh consecutive year, UC San Diego was ranked 1st in the nation by the Washington Monthly’s College Guide based on the positive impact the university has had on the country in terms of enabling social mobility, research productivity and civic engagement.

The UC San Diego Library is committed to student learning and success; the advancement of digital services to bolster faculty research and data preservation; and active sustainability and community engagement efforts. The Library plays a vital role in the University’s achievements and success and is continuously reimagining its portfolio of services, spaces, and resources to best meet the needs of the campus community.

Learning Services Program
The UC San Diego Library’s Learning Services Program supports the campus community’s educational activities by offering subject specific, course-driven, and interdisciplinary face-to-face and online instruction. Learning Services takes into account all learners served by or connected to the institution, regardless of delivery systems, location, and differing accessibility needs and will incorporate values of information literacy into delivery. Learning Services strives to be the locus of expertise for instructional design and pedagogy that guides instruction services provided by the Library and seeks to create a learning organization that crosses disciplines.

Program activities include:
• Designing, collaborating on and providing general instruction to UCSD patrons using a variety of formats and methods.
• Collaborating with other library and campus programs to coordinate undergraduate instruction and other outreach efforts.
• Developing and co-developing reusable and one-time learning objects.
• Participating in peer-to-peer evaluations of teaching and/or teaching tools.

Responsibilities of the Position:
• Serve as liaison to the university’s First Year Experience (FYE) Program and interact with other campus units such as summer bridge programs, those that serve underrepresented populations, and first year writing programs.
• Identify and deliver effective and innovative instructional sessions and provide alternate learning opportunities such as LibGuides, train-the-trainer sessions, online tutorials, or other just-in-time methods.
• Facilitate Library efforts for the first-year experience and other undergraduate student activities in collaboration with liaison and instruction librarians, instructional designers, instructional technologists, and campus partners.
• Conduct train-the-trainer sessions for FYE and Transfer Year Experience (TYE) Discussion Leaders and TAs (i.e. technical training for online modules and discussions of information literacy and its importance in student transition to university, library anxiety, and library instruction scaffolding).
• Identify and establish working partnerships with campus programs that contribute to the FYE Program in order to bridge the gap between research skill deficiencies of high school/community college students and first year university students.
• Provide undergraduate instruction to support the writing programs.
• Cultivate and sustain collaborative relationships with students, staff, and faculty in support of campus teaching and learning.
In addition, the First Year Experience Librarian will work collaboratively with other Library programs to create and encourage new partnerships, participate in assessment of instruction practices, and contribute to new and innovative assessment efforts regarding online and face-to-face learning.
Required Qualifications
• Professional degree from a library school or other advanced degree, or equivalent experience one or more fields relevant to library science.
• Experience with instruction in an academic library to undergraduate students.
• Knowledge of current issues and trends in instruction pedagogy, instructional technologies, and instructional literacies.
• Willingness to take risks and experiment with new methods.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills, including the ability to work independently as well as within a team environment and with diverse groups.
• Demonstrated continuing growth in initiative/judgment, self-development & assessment, and continuous learning.
• Understanding of assessment methods and ability to put these methods into practice.
• Demonstrated strong commitment to cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.
• Demonstrated ability to plan, document, and complete projects.

Desired Qualifications
• Demonstrated interest in the first-year experience.
• Knowledge of undergraduate living/learning environments and day-to-day experiences of first-year students.
• Strong commitment to information literacy instruction.
• Demonstrated aptitude for teaching in multiple formats.
• Demonstrated knowledge of outcomes-based assessment practices.
• Demonstrated willingness to engage in the design and development of new processes.

The UC San Diego Library is committed to supporting academic excellence and diversity within the faculty, staff, and student body. Librarians at UC San Diego are non-Senate academic appointees and are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This is a represented position. It is necessary to have respect for and sensitivity to a rich and diverse academic environment inclusive of students, faculty, and staff of varying social, economic, cultural, ideological, ability, and ethnic backgrounds.

Salary: Salary and level of appointment in the Librarian series commensurate with qualifications and experience and based on the University of California pay scales.

Closing Date: Application consideration begins September 11, 2017 and will continue until the position is filled.

Partner Opportunities Program: UC San Diego recognizes that your employment decisions may involve dual career considerations. UCSD provides online and in-person career and relocation assistance to spouses and partners of academic appointees.

AA-EOE: UCSD is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong institutional commitment to excellence through diversity.

Application Requirements

Document requirements
  • Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

  • Cover Letter

  • Statement of Contributions to diversity - Applicants should summarize their past or potential contributions to diversity. See our Faculty Equity site for more information.

  • Misc / Additional (Optional)

Reference requirements
  • 3 required (contact information only)

Job location

San Diego, CA