"Library Director"

Location

Allentown, PA

Open Date

Jul 25, 2024

Salary Range or Pay Grade

$69,000-$73,000 a year

Description

Cedar Crest College (Allentown, PA) seeks the next director of Cressman Library with a vision for student success and equitable learning in library services, information literacy, and collections management. As a women’s college with co-educational graduate and adult-learner programs, Cedar Crest offers 35 bachelor-degree programs and an advancing portfolio of 15 master degrees and 4 practitioner doctorates. Our mission is to educate the next generation of leaders, especially women, for life in a global community. Our students include many from first-generation college families and diverse races and ethnicities, nationalities, economic means, gender and sexually diverse identities, religious beliefs, abilities and disabilities, and ages.

The Library Director will set a forward-thinking vision for the library’s collection and educational services, valuing equity, empowerment, and expanded access in student learning for research abilities and information literacy. The Library Director works interdepartmentally with our academic programs and College offices, advising the College administration and faculty on evolving library and information-literacy based practices and needs. The director establishes library policies through collaborative leadership and decision-making with faculty, students, staff, and community members; curates the library collection and information services for evolving curricular and student learning needs; mentors and supervises library personnel, incCollege, consortiumlibrarians, part-time support staff, and student workers; prepares and manages the library budget; maintains and negotiates contracts with library vendors to provide for optimum resources; assesses and improves library resources and services to meet curricular student learning outcomes; develops and implements the library’s instructional offerings for information literacy; prepares reports for review bodies, such as accreditors; and, among other duties, serves on College, consortium, and regional affiliate committees as needed.

Qualifications

Qualifications for successful applicants will include a master’s or higher degree from an ALA-accredited program; three or more years of relevant supervisory experience in a library, including a record of increasing responsibility and demonstrated success in meeting the evolving goals of contemporary library services.

Rising in three levels from the Cedar Crest hillside, the Cressman Library reflects the College's commitment to a comprehensive liberal-arts education and the preparation of professionals in areas of practitioner excellence. Cressman houses our recently opened Learning Commons, which provides space for the instruction of information literacy, academic research in the age of Artificial Intelligence, and collaborative training on effective teaching practices for inclusive excellence and belonging. Strategic partnerships such as the #WeRead360 library, with our Education Department, extend the library’s work across the campus and Lehigh Valley communities.

The WorldCat online catalog provides computer-supported identification of the holdings of the Cedar Crest library. The library system also provides an interface to electronic networks and the College’s information databases. Affiliations with the LVAIC consortium and daily document delivery services link the resources of more than two million volumes for student and faculty study and research. The Library uses network affiliation with LYRASIS, OCLC, and the Internet to extend its access to collections in libraries in the Lehigh Valley, the United States, and worldwide.

Application Instructions

Interested applicants must submit the below documents:

•  A letter of interest (cover letter)
• Curriculum Vitae    
• A statement of teaching philosophy for how library services engages in the education of college students
• A statement on inclusive excellence that describes planned contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
• Writing samples or portfolio of pertinent scholarly or practitioner activities
• Three letters of reference

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled; applications received before 8/16/2024 will receive initial priority consideration. 

About Cedar Crest College:

Cedar Crest College, founded in 1867, is an independent liberal-arts college for women that emphasizes cross-disciplinary cooperation and excellence in teaching and research. We have been leading the way for over 150 years for women in higher education with a continued commitment to providing access to education for underrepresented populations. Cedar Crest enrolls over 1600 students annually through our traditional undergraduate programs for women and our co-education programs in the School of Adult and Graduate Education. We offer an exceptional benefit package and work-life balance. Our commitment to health and wellness on campus is evidenced by our updated fitness center, our aquatic center focused on healthy lifestyles, and our smoke and tobacco-free campus. The College’s beautiful 84-acre campus, a registered national arboretum, is located in the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, conveniently located between Philadelphia and New York City. 

Cedar Crest College is an equal opportunity employer fundamentally committed to diversity and inclusion. As such, the College encourages applications from individuals belonging to minoritized groups in higher education in support of our diverse student community. EOE 

The large majority of Cedar Crest’s students—nearly ninety percent—are women. More than one third are students of color and nearly forty percent are first-generation college students; they are religiously diverse and diverse in terms of gender and sexuality. Our population also includes students from many different countries, in addition to the U.S. 

We seek to recruit faculty who are prepared to teach our students, to engage their curiosity, and to inspire their persistence. 

Cedar Crest Diversity Statement: 

Founded under the mission to expand women’s access to higher-education, Cedar Crest College values difference in a diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning environment. The College is committed to educational excellence, leadership, and civic engagement in a pluralistic society. We thus embrace an inclusive community that brings together students, faculty, and staff of different racial and multi-racial, ethnic and multi-ethnic, gender and sexually diverse, religious and nonreligious, economic, and national identities and ages. Our educational mission includes students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education, such as students of color, first-generation college students, international students, students of varying ability or disability, and other identities.