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Job Description

The Assistant Director for Archives & Special Collections provides leadership, mentorship, and vision for programs and services that document, preserve, and share the rich historical legacy of the WPI community and its cultural and intellectual life through the university’s archives and special collections. The Assistant Director has primary responsibility for planning, coordinating, developing, preserving, and promoting WPI’s university and general archives and rare book and manuscript collections, as well as leading instructional and engagement programs that encourage active scholarship and use of archives and unique and rare collections. The Assistant Director develops collaborative partnerships across the library, the university, and external organizations to extend the reach and impact of WPI’s collections, and to address the major challenges and opportunities facing archives and special collections.  As a member of the library’s collaborative leadership team, the Assistant Director helps develop library-wide policies, budget, programs, and priorities. This position is a management position that supervises two permanent professional staff positions, as well as temporary personnel, student workers, and interns.

Additional Info & Requirements

Preferred requirements: Graduate degree with focus on archives; second graduate degree in a relevant field; teaching experience; experience in grants and donor development and other fund-raising activities; proficiency working with ArchivesSpace and/or other archives collection management systems; experience working with an institutional repository platform such as Bepress’s Digital Commons; experience providing reference services in an archives or manuscripts repository; experience working with college or university records; significant experience working with rare books, special collections and/or archives in a university setting.

The Community

WPI’s Archives & Special Collections is home to significant research collections that include a world-class collection of works by Charles Dickens; manuscript collections relevant to the history of science, technology, and manufacturing; art and objects including scientific instruments; and extensive archives reflecting WPI’s 150+ year history as a regional and global center of excellence in learning and research, blending scholarship and practice.  WPI’s curricular emphasis on project-based learning creates many opportunities for library and archives staff to engage directly with WPI students and faculty in interpreting, digitizing and processing records as well as conducting and contributing original research. Existing digital infrastructure supporting WPI archives and special collections includes Bepress’s Digital Commons and Omeka; the library is partnering this year with campus IT to develop a Fedora-based digital repository infrastructure that will support unique cultural and institutional digital collections; the library will be migrating to Alma + Summon in summer 2018, and anticipates implementing ArchivesSpace in 2018. A completely renovated, environmentally controlled Archives and Special Collections space was completed in 2016, and includes a public reading room, on-site storage, and formal gallery space.