Across the country we go again.  Something that’s come up with a number of jobs of late is the coordinator syndrome.  There are several places that seem to be doing the “we’ll just fill in the data needs by hiring someone new (maybe for just one or two years) and then everything will be fine.”   If you’re concerned a data job you see might fall into this category, I recommend you review this excellent post from Gavia Libraria and approach interviews with caution.  Even if you’re not concerned, the Loon raises a couple of questions that every data librarian should be asking to get the best lay of the land.

If you’re interested in working just north of me, Northwestern University has a really intriguing job opening.  they’re hiring a Numeric and Geospatial Data Librarian.  What’s so special about that, you ask?  It’s a department head position supervising THREE librarians.  Most of the jobs like this, it’s one person to support it all.  From the job description:  “In addition to managing the unit, the Numeric and Geospatial Data Librarian serves as the Library’s selector for the numeric data collection, and manager of the numeric data collection budget.  Directly supervises three librarians, one data management specialist, and one geospatial and cartographic specialist.”  Let me know if you’re coming in for an interview,  would be happy to have dinner.

Between UIC and Northwestern is DePaul, a Catholic uni on the northeast side of Chicago.  They have a grant funded position open for a Data Analyst/Programmer.  While I appreciate their candor, starting the job ad with “if the grant funding changes you are out of a job” might be the most encouraging way to get candidates on board.  You’d be specifically working with the Institute for House Studies, managing and wrangling their data.  An MLS is not required for this position.  This doesn’t actually appear to be with the library, so I’m not sure how closely they’ll be working with librarians.

The University of Minnesota is hiring a new head of the Health Sciences Library.  They’ve got a pretty robust data support program going on, though I’m not sure who from the Health Sci Library is involved.  If you’re interested, you might check with one of the librarians listed and find out what work is involved.

Purdue seems to be hiring a lot of people these days. We talked about the Metadata position and the Head of Resource Services.  Add to that pile this week’s postings for a Digital Data Repository Specialist and a Digital Library Software Developer. The latter is intended more for a coder, it doesn’t require an MLS, but they do need two of them.  I saw a presentation by D. Scott Brandt last week about what Purdue is doing and frankly, it looks cool.

Another management position is available at the University of Southern Mississippi, where they are looking for an Associate Dean of Research Services.  They just touch on data analysis as one of the things that the candidate should be able to manage, but here’s an opportunity to prevent one of those coordinator positions by providing some leadership and direction and financial support!

If you’re looking for the Wayne State job, make sure you don’t follow the link on the LisJob page (www.jobs…etc). You need to go straight to http://jobs.wayne.edu or hopefully this will take you straight in.  They are looking for two Digital Publishing Librarians, who will be involved in all aspects of digital publishing, including getting things for the IR and possible curation thereof.   I haven’t dug too deeply into what they are looking for but it seems like this should involve publication of datasets.  One little red flag is that the job ad doesn’t have a salary listed on it.

Oooh, if you are interested in the state of Michigan though, UMich is hiring! Doesn’t it sound like an interesting place to work when the library is called the Stephen S. Clark Library for Maps, Government Information and Data ? They’re specifically looking for an International Government Information Librarian.  The requirements are flexible for this one too, they’re not hanging everything on x number of years of experience but looking for experience doing certain things.  If I were into polisci, this would be very appealing.

And a third for the mitten state, Michigan Tech is looking for a STEM librarian and the posting I saw (only on a listserv, haven’t seen it on the boards) said they were very willing to consider spring grads and those newly degreed.

Oregon State has a brand new data services position.  While they identify who this person will be reporting to, it’s not clear what the reference department and liaisons may already be doing to support these efforts or what their anticipated relationship with the IR Manager will be?  Also, again no salary listed. “Commensurate” doesn’t tell me much.  If I were applying I’d want to meet with the campus computing people and the office of research to find out how they are supporting this position as well, as those are two departments regularly affected by the data mandates.

Cornell has a two year Health Sciences position available.  They are doing interesting things with VIVO, so that’s definitely appealing. I’m curious why it’s only two years though. Do they have two people going out on sabbatical?  Is someone taking a two year LOA to go study in a short program elsewhere?  They’ve also got a Business and Economics position open that I hadn’t seen on the job boards yet (it’ll probably come through between when I start this draft and when this publishes).  Both jobs have very brief descriptions of requirements, so it will be a bit of a challenge to really tailor the cover letter, but I’m sure you can find plenty of interesting things about the library.

Rhodes College makes finding their library a scavenger hunt. It took me five clicks from rhodes.edu (where the job ad directed the curious reader) to get to the library homepage and then I was mostly prompted to log in to “In Rhodes.”   Here’s the link to the employment page.  Please note the position for an Information Services Librarian specializing in Natural and Behavioral Sciences, is under Staff positions, not Faculty.  This is a small liberal arts college, so I’m not sure how much research support will be in place, but it certainly can’t hurt for the librarian to know about accessing data and citing it properly with the undergrads.

I think Miami University of Ohio wins for job ad that doesn’t mention the name of the university until the last line.  They are hiring a Numeric and Spatial Data Services Librarian.  The only two things I wish they’d added were who the position reports to (several working partners identified) and salary.  Otherwise it looks pretty straightforward and rather challenging.  One year of experience is required.  I visited MUOH when I was a high school student, we saw a concert there. I remember thinking I might apply because they had a really cool recreation center, I seem to recall a rock climbing wall?  Ahhh the logical thinking of a 15 year old.

The Wisconsin Historical Society is hiring a Maps Cataloger. This is a two year project position, but looks like a good way to turn a GIS class and some cataloging experience into some practical work. No experience is required but there are a couple of good SLIS schools in Wisconsin, so I imagine there will be some competition.

(So why are so many of these posts in the Midwest? Where are the east cost jobs? Hmmmmm?)