Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Chris

CATALOGER OF WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) invites applications for the full-time, benefit-eligible position of Cataloger of Western Manuscripts. This is a three-year, grant-funded position.

The Cataloger will participate in HMML’s effort to catalog Western manuscripts and to support the creation of authority files by HMML’s metadata librarian. The Cataloger will focus primarily on the migration and correction of legacy data for microfilmed manuscript collections. This position is supervised by and reports to the Director of Cataloging.

Founded in 1965, HMML holds the world’s largest archive of manuscript photographs in both microfilm and digital format. HMML identifies manuscript collections around the world that need photographic preservation and online access. Its archives now contain more than 500,000 complete manuscripts, ranging in size from large codices of hundreds of folios to brief documents consisting of just a few leaves.

Visit  hmml.org to learn more about the places, people and communities that have been part of HMML’s global story, and the manuscripts in HMML’s digital and microfilm collections.

Located on the campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, HMML is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation that contracts with the Order of Saint Benedict (OSB) for employees and employee services.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  1. Catalog Western manuscripts according to HMML metadata standards, improving and standardizing legacy manuscript descriptions.  Original cataloging of uncataloged manuscript materials from new digital preservation projects may be possible at the end of the migration of the legacy metadata.
  2. Support the creation of authority files and controlled vocabulary during cataloging.
  3. Provide expertise when necessary on the German and Latin languages, naming practices, and manuscript tradition.
  4. Work closely with HMML staff on relevant aspects of project workflow.
  5. Submit monthly reports on cataloging.
  6. Answer patron questions concerning the Western manuscript collections.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

  1. Performs other duties as required by the director or supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  1. Earned doctorate in History, Germanic Studies, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, or MLIS equivalent.
  2. Excellent knowledge of German and Latin language and paleography.
  3. Native or near native English language proficiency and good communications skills.
  4. Experience in working with manuscripts or cataloging manuscripts.
  5. Knowledge of Microsoft Office (particularly spreadsheet methodologies), Google Sheets, Google Drive, and other commonly used menu-based software.
  6. Experience with using digital tools for research in the humanities and ability to understand and work with HMML’s digital platforms and tools.
  7. Attention to detail; accuracy and thoroughness in work habits; ability to manage multiple, complex tasks; ability to work in a collaborative team environment; and willingness to utilize communications tools to facilitate working remotely with speedy response times.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  1. Knowledge of DCRM(MSS) and AMREMM cataloging standards.
  2. Knowledge of Italian, French, Czech, Hungarian, or Swedish.
  3. Experience working with databases and database management.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES:

  1. Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  2. Strong computer skills.

PHYSICAL ABILITIES:

Sitting for prolonged periods of time. Extensive use of computers and keyboard. Occasional lifting may be required.

ADDITIONAL REQUISITES: 

In addition to the qualifications noted on the job description, all employees are expected to abide by the following expectations:

  1. Ability to interact with the community of the Order of Saint Benedict and the Saint John’s community as an integral part of the staff.
  2. Project a positive image of service which represents the unit to which assigned.
  3. Ability to acquire an understanding of the character and mission of Order of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.
  4. A willingness to maintain a high level of competence.  Discreet judgment and confidentiality are expected of all employees.
  5. The personal safety and health of each employee is of primary importance in our operation.   Each employee has the responsibility to prevent accidents and injuries.   The Order of Saint Benedict and its employees have the responsibility to comply with Federal, State, and departmental regulations related to safety and health.

ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENTAL REQUISITES:

Help create and foster a positive, respectful, and inclusive work environment.

TO APPLY:

Applications are accepted online at https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/csbsju/osb. Candidates are asked to complete the application form and submit a cover letter and resume.

If you require an accommodation to participate in the OSB hiring process, please contact Human Resources at (320) 363-2874.

It is the policy of OSB to conduct a pre-employment background check.  An offer of employment is contingent upon a successful background check.

HMML is a cultural heritage institution that welcomes applicants from all religious and cultural backgrounds.

Order of Saint Benedict is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment

Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Chris

CATALOGER OF SLAVIC MANUSCRIPTS, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) invites applications for the full-time, benefit-eligible position of Cataloger of Slavic Manuscripts. This is a two-year, grant-funded position.

The Cataloger will participate in HMML’s effort to catalog recently digitized Slavic manuscripts and to support the creation of authority files by HMML’s metadata librarian. The Cataloger will do both original cataloging of digital surrogates as well as the correction of existing catalog records. This position is supervised by the Lead Cataloger of Eastern Christian Collections and reports to the Director of Cataloging.

Founded in 1965, HMML holds the world’s largest archive of manuscript photographs in both microfilm and digital format. HMML identifies manuscript collections around the world that need photographic preservation and online access. Its archives now contain more than 500,000 complete manuscripts, ranging in size from large codices of hundreds of folios to brief documents consisting of just a few leaves.

Visit  hmml.org to learn more about the places, people and communities that have been part of HMML’s global story, and the manuscripts in HMML’s digital and microfilm collections.

Located on the campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, HMML is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation that contracts with the Order of Saint Benedict (OSB) for employees and employee services.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  1. Catalog Slavic manuscripts according to HMML metadata standards.
  2. Support the creation of authority files and controlled vocabulary during cataloging.
  3. Provide expertise when necessary on the Church Slavonic language, naming practices, and manuscript tradition.
  4. Work closely with HMML staff on relevant aspects of project workflow.
  5. Submit monthly reports on cataloging.
  6. Answer patron questions concerning the Slavic digital manuscript collections.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

  1. Performs other duties as required by the director or supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  1. Earned doctorate in History, Slavic Studies, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, or MLIS equivalent.
  2. Ability to read Cyrillic writing and excellent knowledge of Church Slavonic language and paleography.
  3. Native or near native English language proficiency and good communications skills.
  4. Experience in working with manuscripts or cataloging manuscripts.
  5. Knowledge of Microsoft Office (particularly spreadsheet methodologies), Google Sheets, Google Drive, and other commonly used menu-based software.
  6. Experience with using digital tools for research in the humanities and ability to understand and work with HMML’s digital platforms and tools.
  7. Attention to detail; accuracy and thoroughness in work habits; ability to manage multiple, complex tasks; ability to work in a collaborative team environment; and willingness to utilize communications tools to facilitate working remotely with speedy response times.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  1. Knowledge of DCRM(MSS) and AMREMM cataloging standards.
  2. Knowledge of Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian, Russian, Greek, or Latin.
  3. Experience working with databases and database management.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES:

  1. Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  2. Strong computer skills.

PHYSICAL ABILITIES:

Sitting for prolonged periods of time. Extensive use of computers and keyboard. Occasional lifting may be required.

ADDITIONAL REQUISITES: 

In addition to the qualifications noted on the job description, all employees are expected to abide by the following expectations:

  1. Ability to interact with the community of the Order of Saint Benedict and the Saint John’s community as an integral part of the staff.
  2. Project a positive image of service which represents the unit to which assigned.
  3. Ability to acquire an understanding of the character and mission of Order of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.
  4. A willingness to maintain a high level of competence.  Discreet judgment and confidentiality are expected of all employees.
  5. The personal safety and health of each employee is of primary importance in our operation.   Each employee has the responsibility to prevent accidents and injuries.   The Order of Saint Benedict and its employees have the responsibility to comply with Federal, State, and departmental regulations related to safety and health.

ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENTAL REQUISITES:

Help create and foster a positive, respectful, and inclusive work environment.

TO APPLY:

Applications are accepted online at https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/csbsju/osb. Candidates are asked to complete the application form and submit a cover letter and resume.

If you require an accommodation to participate in the OSB hiring process, please contact Human Resources at (320) 363-2874.

It is the policy of OSB to conduct a pre-employment background check.  An offer of employment is contingent upon a successful background check.

HMML is a cultural heritage institution that welcomes applicants from all religious and cultural backgrounds.

Order of Saint Benedict is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment

Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Chris

CATALOGER OF ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) invites applications for the full-time, benefit-eligible position of Cataloger of Armenian Manuscripts. This is a three-year, grant-funded position.

The Cataloger will participate in HMML’s effort to catalog recently digitized Armenian manuscripts and to support the creation of authority files by HMML’s metadata librarian. The Cataloger will do both original cataloging of digital surrogates as well as the correction of existing catalog records. This position is supervised by the Lead Cataloger of Eastern Christian Collections and reports to the Director of Cataloging.

Founded in 1965, HMML holds the world’s largest archive of manuscript photographs in both microfilm and digital format. HMML identifies manuscript collections around the world that need photographic preservation and online access. Its archives now contain more than 500,000 complete manuscripts, ranging in size from large codices of hundreds of folios to brief documents consisting of just a few leaves.

Visit  hmml.org to learn more about the places, people and communities that have been part of HMML’s global story, and the manuscripts in HMML’s digital and microfilm collections.

Located on the campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, HMML is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation that contracts with the Order of Saint Benedict (OSB) for employees and employee services.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  1. Catalog manuscripts in Armenian according to HMML metadata standards.
  2. Support the creation of authority files and controlled vocabulary during cataloging.
  3. Provide expertise when necessary on the Armenian language, naming practices, and manuscript tradition.
  4. Work closely with HMML staff on relevant aspects of project workflow.
  5. Submit monthly reports on cataloging.
  6. Answer patron questions concerning the Armenian digital manuscript collections.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

  1. Performs other duties as required by the director or supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  1. Earned doctorate in History, Armenian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Studies, Mediterranean Studies, or MLIS equivalent.
  2. Excellent knowledge of Armenian language and paleography.
  3. Native or near native English language proficiency and good communications skills.
  4. Experience in working with manuscripts or cataloging manuscripts.
  5. Knowledge of Microsoft Office (particularly spreadsheet methodologies), Google Sheets, Google Drive, and other commonly used menu-based software.
  6. Experience with using digital tools for research in the humanities and ability to understand and work with HMML’s digital platforms and tools.
  7. Attention to detail; accuracy and thoroughness in work habits; ability to manage multiple, complex tasks; ability to work in a collaborative team environment; and willingness to utilize communications tools to facilitate working remotely with speedy response times.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  1. Knowledge of DCRM(MSS) and AMREMM cataloging standards.
  2. Knowledge of Turkish, Georgian, Greek, or Church Slavonic.
  3. Experience working with databases and database management.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES:

  1. Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  2. Strong computer skills.

PHYSICAL ABILITIES:

Sitting for prolonged periods of time. Extensive use of computers and keyboard. Occasional lifting may be required.

ADDITIONAL REQUISITES: 

In addition to the qualifications noted on the job description, all employees are expected to abide by the following expectations:

  1. Ability to interact with the community of the Order of Saint Benedict and the Saint John’s community as an integral part of the staff.
  2. Project a positive image of service which represents the unit to which assigned.
  3. Ability to acquire an understanding of the character and mission of Order of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.
  4. A willingness to maintain a high level of competence.  Discreet judgment and confidentiality are expected of all employees.
  5. The personal safety and health of each employee is of primary importance in our operation.   Each employee has the responsibility to prevent accidents and injuries.   The Order of Saint Benedict and its employees have the responsibility to comply with Federal, State, and departmental regulations related to safety and health.

ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENTAL REQUISITES:

Help create and foster a positive, respectful, and inclusive work environment.

TO APPLY:

Applications are accepted online at https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/csbsju/osb. Candidates are asked to complete the application form and submit a cover letter and resume.

If you require an accommodation to participate in the OSB hiring process, please contact Human Resources at (320) 363-2874.

It is the policy of OSB to conduct a pre-employment background check.  An offer of employment is contingent upon a successful background check.

HMML is a cultural heritage institution that welcomes applicants from all religious and cultural backgrounds.

Order of Saint Benedict is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment

2023-2024 Visiting Research Fellowships at the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Chris

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) is pleased to announce that the call for applications to the 2023-2024 Visiting Research Fellowship program is now open. Guided by the vision of its founders, Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, SIMS aims to bring manuscript culture, modern technology, and people together to provide access to and understanding of our shared intellectual heritage. Part of the Penn Libraries, SIMS oversees an extensive collection of premodern manuscripts from around the world, with a special focus on the history of philosophy and science, and creates open-access digital content to support the study of its collections.

Fellowships are open to scholars living outside of the greater Philadelphia-area whose research would benefit from direct access to our collections and staff expertise in manuscript studies and the digital humanities. Applicants must have completed a Ph.D. or an equivalent professional degree by the time the fellowship begins. The fellowship offers $5000 to spend 1 month (minimum of 4 work weeks) at SIMS between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. Up to 3 fellowships will be awarded this year. For more information and to apply, please visit https://schoenberginstitute.org/visiting-research-fellowships.

Applications are due May 15, 2023.

Posted in Fellowships | Leave a comment

MAA Webinar – Medieval Crip Theory: New Approaches and Provocations

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Chris

Medieval Academy of America Webinar
Wednesday, April 12
3:00 to 4:30 pm

Medieval Crip Theory: New Approaches and Provocations

Click here to register.

This Webinar, organized by the Inclusivity & Diversity Committee, will explore and present new research on disability studies and the Middle Ages.  The three papers will be followed by questions and discussion.

Moderators and Introduction
Heide Estes, Monmouth University, and Nahir Otaño-Gracia, University of New Mexico

Richard H. Godden, Louisiana State University, 

“Cripping Langland’s Will”

In the C.5 interlude of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, the dreamer presents himself as physically unable to perform manual labor. Confronted by Reason and Conscience, Will states that he is too weak to wield tools and too tall to work the earth. Therefore, he labors with his hands after a different fashion, which is to say the making of the poem. Is Will not asking for accommodation? Reason is not only asking Will, are you disabled? He is asking, are you disabled enough? To take Will seriously that he is too long to work is to center disability, to make it inextricable from the social and salvific urgency in the poem. While the C-text expands on some of the severe and searching identifications of who is justifiably disabled, it does so while also positing a disabled subject. Will occupies an antinormative position, one that highlights the tension between normative frameworks and individual experience, between disability as something determined (or perhaps overdetermined) by social, religious, and economic desires on one hand, and disability as a site for transformative potentialities, nonnormative, alternative embodiments on the other.

Richard H. Godden is Assistant Professor of English at Louisiana State University. He works primarily on medieval romance, Chaucer, and representations of disability and monstrosity in the Middle Ages. He is completing a book manuscript titled Material Subjects: An Ecology of Prosthesis in Medieval Literature and Culture. He is co-editor of the collection Monstrosity, Disability, and the Posthuman in the Medieval and Early Modern World and he is also co-editor of The Open Access Companion to The Canterbury Tales.

Leah Parker, University of Southern Mississippi 

“Eschatologies of Disability / Crip Eschatologies”

The afterlife was an embodied life in the medieval Christian eschatological imaginary. This embodied afterlife functioned both figurally, because language of the body made possible discussions of the soul, and literally, because Christians were promised a resurrected body that would be both perfected and yet still continuous with one’s earthly self. Where there is body, there can be disability, and indeed, many discussions of the afterlife, particularly matters of salvation, relied upon figural and literal references to disability for their production of eschatological hope. This paper considers some of the ways disability supported eschatological hope in vernacular literature from early medieval England, and how such literature witnesses early medieval Christians imagining the afterlife through disability, and inescapably reimagining disability through the afterlife.

Leah Parker is an Assistant Professor of English and English Undergraduate Coordinator at the University of Southern Mississippi. Parker researches embodied difference and eschatology in medieval England, and is completing a book manuscript on Disability and Salvation in Old English Literature.

Tory V. Pearman, Miami University

“Cripping Time in Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale”

This paper offers a reading of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale with attention to the disruptive crip time produced by its setting during the Black Plague. As I will show, the “plague time” depicted in the tale frustrates normative measures of time, allowing readers living in an era in which time has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic to connect with the text through and across time in all of its iterations. This antinormative potential reveals one way in which the lens of disability can not only expand past representations of disability, but also use the medieval to help us better understand how disability is viewed and used in a post-COVID-19-onset world.

Tory V. Pearman is Professor of English at Miami University. She researches representations of gender and disability in medieval literature and culture and is author of Women and Disability in Medieval Literature (Palgrave 2010) and Disability and Knighthood in Malory’s Morte Darthur (Routledge 2019). She is co-editor of The Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages (Bloomsbury 2022).

Posted in Webinars | Leave a comment

Call for Papers – Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Chris

Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, a journal sponsored by the UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, has these opportunities available:

Call for Papers: Comitatus invites the submission of articles by graduate students and recent PhDs in any field of medieval and Renaissance studies. We particularly welcome articles that integrate or synthesize disciplines. March 6, 2023, is the deadline for submissions to Volume 54 (2023). See the full call for papers here.

Call for Book Reviewers: Comitatus is now accepting proposals from prospective book reviewers. Interested reviewers should consult the list of potential review titles and send a first and second choice to Allison McCann (allisonmccann@humnet.ucla.edu) by March 6, 2023. Requests should also include university affiliation and a brief explanation of research interests and qualifications. See the full call for reviewers here.

Posted in Call for Papers | Leave a comment

Jobs For Medievalists

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Chris

The History Department at Hamilton College invites applications for a one-year position at the rank of Visiting Assistant Professor, beginning July 1, 2023. We seek candidates to teach courses on Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Histories. We are especially interested in candidates whose teaching and research explore cross-cultural, interconnected histories of Europe and the wider Mediterranean, including Byzantium, North Africa, the Near East, or the Carolingian Empire. We are receptive to interdisciplinary methodologies, including historical archaeology, manuscript/book studies, or gender/LGTBQ studies. Candidates should be prepared to teach a lower-division, writing-intensive course, History 160: The Global Middle Ages and to participate in the college’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program. We are seeking candidates who can demonstrate their experience in teaching or working with diverse student populations. Your cover letter should address ways in which you raise issues of diversity and inclusion in your teaching, scholarship, and/or service.

Candidates with ABD will be considered, although candidates with a Ph.D. are preferred. The teaching load for this position is five courses. Candidates should submit a cover letter, c.v., and two letters of recommendation via interfolio at http://apply.interfolio.com/121331. Questions regarding the search may be directed to John Eldevik, Search Committee Chair, at jeldevik@hamilton.edu. Our review of applications will begin on March 20, 2023.

Hamilton (www.hamilton.edu) is a residential liberal arts college located in upstate New York. Applicants with dual-career considerations can find other Hamilton and nearby academic job listings at https://www.hercjobs.org/regions/higher-ed-careers-upstate-new-york/, as well as additional information at https://www.hamilton.edu/dof/faculty-development/resources-for-prospective-or-new-faculty/opportunities-for-spouses-or-partners (Opportunities for Spouses or Partners). Hamilton College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity in all areas of the campus community. Hamilton provides domestic partner benefits. Candidates from underrepresented groups in higher education are especially encouraged to apply.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment

Support for Turkey and Syria

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Chris

As the death toll and suffering in Turkey and Syria mounts, and reports on the destruction of museums and monuments of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman period filter in, the Medieval Academy of America and its community of scholars wishes to convey its utmost sympathy and concern for those affected by the recent earthquakes. Even those living and teaching outside the area have lost colleagues and students (many had gone home for the holidays), as well as the very materials on which their research is based. Our membership mourns the loss of life, homes destroyed, livelihoods interrupted, and utter devastation in Antakya (Antioch), Aleppo and many other centers in this historic region.

Should you wish to do something, there are many ways to support relief efforts, among those ways are giving to the International Rescue Committee (rescue.org); the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC.org); the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR.org); and Doctors Without Borders (doctorswithoutborders.org).

– Medieval Academy of America Advocacy Committee

Posted in Advocacy | Leave a comment

Online Lecture: Dialogue in Homilies and Hymns on the Annunciation

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Chris

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.

Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 12:00 PM EST | Zoom
Dialogue in Homilies and Hymns on the Annunciation: The Dynamics of a Divine Encounter
Mary Cunningham, University of Nottingham

The story of the Annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary is first recounted in the Gospel of Luke 1: 26-38. The event was formally adopted as a major feast in the Eastern Church, celebrated on 25 March (nine months before Christmas) in 560, during the reign of the Emperor Justinian. Homilies and hymns on the Annunciation were composed long before this date, however, not always in association with the feast. These texts build on Luke’s narrative, describing Mary as the ‘Second Eve’ who overturned the disobedience of her first ancestor by consenting to God’s will and conceiving Christ, the Son of God. They celebrate the event as the inauguration of the new dispensation, which will bring salvation to humanity and the rest of creation. Further elaboration, which appears especially in homilies – but later also in hymns – on the Annunciation, can be seen in the invention of dialogues between Gabriel and Mary or Mary and Joseph. These serve not only to convey the doctrine of the incarnation to audiences, but also to illustrate the Virgin’s human condition. She expresses shock and doubt at her first encounter with the archangel, but gradually accepts his message of salvation. This lecture will examine variations in liturgical writers’ handling of the issues of free will, gender, and Marian devotion in Byzantine homilies and hymns on the Annunciation. It will be illustrated by images of the scene, including in icons, manuscript illustrations, and monumental art.

Mary B. Cunningham is Honorary Associate Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham. Her latest monograph is The Virgin Mary in Byzantium, c. 400-1000. Hymns, Homilies, and Hagiography (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/dialogue-in-homilies-and-hymns-on-the-annunciation

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

Posted in Lectures | Leave a comment

Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Chris

The Boston Public Library is seeking an experienced, enthusiastic Rare Books and Manuscripts Cataloger to join our Rare Books and Manuscript Department. Working in a permanent, full-time position under the title of Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian, the successful candidate will provide original and complex bibliographic description for a broad range of materials, including incunabula, early American imprints, fine press publications, medieval and early modern manuscripts, and print ephemera, among numerous other formats and genres. The cataloger will also work to shape local existing policies and procedures, contributing to the oversight of large-scale retrospective conversion projects, backlog cleanup, and database maintenance.

This is a great opportunity to join a newly reconstituted team, working closely with many of the BPL’s signature collections in a highly visible public institution. The incoming cataloger will have the opportunity to make significant contributions, both to the accessibility of rare materials at the BPL and to the many fields of scholarship that rely on these collections.

The salary range for this position is $69,941-$91,224.
Please read further for a detailed explaination of benefits, including union membership, automatic annual step raises, and pension plan. Please also note that this position is subject to a City of Boston residency requirement.

Recent renovations and new facilities

The BPL recently completed a multi-year renovation of many of its Special Collections spaces. The incoming cataloger will be working in the middle of this new, vibrant, state-of-the art facility.

About the BPL Rare Books and Manuscripts Department

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Department is the BPL’s primary repository for rare and historically significant books, manuscripts, and related materials. Strengths of the collection include 19th-century American abolitionism and anti-slavery movements; British and American literature and drama; Boston, New England, and early American history; and early European printed books and manuscripts, among many others.

Situated in the BPL’s Central Library in Copley Square, we work to support the overall mission of BPL Special Collections, facilitating discovery and fostering public engagement with library’s rare, distinctive, and culturally significant holdings.

Boston Public Library is committed to racial equity and to becoming an anti-racist organization and formed an action plan in 2020 in response to systemic racism, inequity, and injustice prevalent in our society. You can read more about the action plan and the steps BPL is taking to address diversity, equity, and inclusion here.

Scope of responsibility

1. Provides reference service which often includes difficult and complex queries; takes responsibility for developing and maintaining quality reference service within the Department.

2. In coordination with the Special Collections Cataloging Manager and according to the cataloging policies of the Library, performs original and complex descriptive and subject cataloging, classification, and authority work for rare books, manuscripts This work will require special language, subject, and technical knowledge.

3. Establishes new personal and corporate names and uniform titles, with appropriate cross references, for inclusion in the name authority file. Where appropriate, revises existing authority records.

4. Assists in retrospective conversion projects, including digitization projects, by facilitating an accurate conversion of data into appropriate machine readable forms, including MARC21, XML, or other formats as required.

5. Remains current with existing and emerging cataloging policies, practices, standards, schema and procedures including, but not limited to, MARC 21, DCRM suite, AACR2, RDA, LC Rule Interpretations, and OCLC bibliographic standards.

6. Works collaboratively with Content Discovery staff in order to resolve problems relating to item and bibliographic records.

7. Assumes responsibility for implementing the policies of the Library as they pertain to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department.

8. Keep abreast of current trends in scholarship in order to match research needs with collection holdings.

9. Alternates with other staff members in supervising the reading room in such a way as to maintain an atmosphere conducive to research at the same time as preserving and protecting materials.

10. Contributes to cultivation and stewardship of prospective donors and identification of potential collections for acquisition.

11. Increases visibility of the collections through presentations, web-based projects, exhibitions, and public programs.

12. Suggests items or collections in need of conservation, makes recommendations for reformatting of materials, and instructs patrons and other staff in the proper handling of rare books and manuscripts.

13. Prepares statistical and other reports and analyses, as assigned.

14. Performs other related and comparable duties as assigned.

Residency requirement

Please note that the city of Boston residency requirement applies to this position, which means that the successful candidates must be residents of the city of Boston on or before the date of hire.

Salary and benefits

  • Special Collections has a particular commitment to growing the skills of our unit, and has funds both through the library and affiliate donors to draw on for training and conferences.

Applying
For further information and to apply to this position, please visit the City of Boston employment website. Please combine your cover letter and resume in a single PDF file and attach them together in the resume upload section of the website.

Posted in Jobs for Medievalists | Leave a comment