Unleash Your Potential With Us

As a next-generation public research institution, we are an inclusive community of thinkers, doers, creators, innovators, healers, and leaders striving to shape the future and solve the world’s most challenging problems. No matter what your role is, when you join Knight Nation, you become an integral part of our mission to become a university for the future. You’ll be met with opportunities to connect and collaborate with uniquely talented faculty, staff, and students across 13 colleges and multiple campuses and regional locations. That means greater challenges to tackle, more meaningful opportunities to grow, and rewarding experiences that go beyond a paycheck.

The Opportunity

The University of Central Florida Libraries seeks a curious, dynamic, and strategic leader to serve as the associate dean for Technology and Digital Strategies. This position will provide leadership and management to a re-envisioned division and build on the strong foundation already established to support technology services, emerging scholarship, and engagement in the research enterprise. The division portfolio currently includes Digital Initiatives and the institutional repository called STARS, LibTech technology lending, scholarly communication, web services, technology spaces in the John C. Hitt Library, and a liaison role with central UCF Information Technology. The incumbent works closely, and has a strong dotted line relationship, with the UCF-IT business relationship manager (BRM) assigned to the Library. The final portfolio of this division may vary and will continue to evolve based on organizational needs, strategic visioning, and synergies at the institution.

The associate dean is expected to be a progressive and visionary leader with a record of innovative accomplishments and a highly effective communicator who develops and advances working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, keeping them apprised of the services and resources provided by the division, developing mechanisms for routinely assessing stakeholder needs, and ensuring that teaching, learning, and research needs are at the forefront of decision-making processes for the division. Active participation in professional service and scholarly contributions at a national level is expected. The successful candidate will be hired at the rank of university librarian.

Responsibilities:

The associate dean for Technology and Digital Strategies leads a team of 17 full-time staff, including faculty librarians, adjunct faculty, professional staff, and student employees in the following areas:

• Digital Initiatives - This unit manages STARS, UCF’s institutional repository, and provides services for digitization projects and data management plans.
• LibTech - This unit provides a variety of technology related services to library patrons including technology lending, technology support, and assistance with technology tools for multimedia projects.
• Scholarly Communication - This unit is responsible for research, publishing, and copyright support.
• Web Services - This unit develops, oversees, and maintains UCF Libraries’ publicly displayed digital content including the Libraries' web presence, affiliated web content, and digital signage throughout the Libraries.
• Public Technologies – This includes management of desktop computing, AV studios, event spaces, assistive technology, scanning, printing, and teaching and collaboration spaces.

The associate dean is also expected to:

• Report to the dean of UCF Libraries and serve on the senior leadership team, actively contributing to library-wide planning, policy making, and goal setting.
• Thoughtfully engage library and campus stakeholders in planning and leading implementation of inclusive technology services in support of research, teaching, and learning.
• Seek funding to support the implementation of new technologies and existing technology and digital strategies. 
• Implement Library IT initiatives that support the strategy and goals of the university.
• Develop and acquire new technologies and tools to improve the Libraries’ internal operations and service delivery.
• Manage library applications and SaaS offerings.
• Participate in facilities planning, including renovation planning, with a focus on technology needs.
• Continually enhance service quality, outcomes, and efficiency, and ensure that new initiatives and services have needed IT related support to be successful.
• Liaise with UCF IT, keep current on latest IT standards and offerings, and communicate Libraries’ IT activities and needs as relevant.
• Inspire, enable, and empower library faculty and staff to create, innovate, and cultivate a culture of learning, collaboration, initiative, and quality service.
• Represent UCF Libraries through collaboration in a wide range of consortia and partnerships at the university, state, regional, and national levels.

University of Central Florida

Located in vibrant Orlando, the University of Central Florida is a thriving, research university that prides itself on providing access and supporting student success. Home to 1,850 faculty, 12,500 employees, and more than 70,000 students, UCF is one of the largest and most dynamic universities in the nation and leads all universities in Florida in conferring more than 18,000 degrees a year. Research, scholarship, and creative activities have increased rapidly in quality and reputation across the university. The university has an operating budget of $ 2.1 billion, and in fiscal year 2021 UCF researchers received $212 million in funded research.

University of Central Florida Libraries

UCF Libraries includes the Curriculum Materials Center, John C. Hitt Library, and Special Collections and University Archives on the Orlando campus; branch libraries on the Rosen and Downtown campuses; and partnerships with Direct Connect colleges. The Hitt Library recently completed construction of an Automated Retrieval Center (ARC), the addition of 57,000 square feet dedicated to student and faculty research and is still undergoing significant and exciting enhancements to the facility.

UCF Libraries offers a collection of more than 2.2 million volumes and 52,000 serials and manages the institutional repository STARS. We are members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), Center for Research Libraries (CRL), Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC), HathiTrust, and are a selective member of the Federal Depository Library Program. Since 2015, the Libraries, in collaboration with faculty and campus partners, has facilitated use of open and library-sourced course materials, in turn potentially saving students over $9 million. Staffing of 155 full-time staff includes 46 faculty librarians, 59 paraprofessional and administrative staff, and 50+ student employees who are dedicated to serving UCF faculty, students, and the greater Orlando community. For more information about the UCF Libraries see http://library.ucf.edu .

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in library and information science from an ALA-accredited institution.
• A minimum of seven years of relevant academic or professional experience.
• At least five years of management and leadership experience.
• Substantial experience with information technology, library applications, and SaaS.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Supervisory experience of units and librarians responsible for technology systems and services, and outreach and engagement services.
• Record of developing and maintaining internal and external partnerships.
• Knowledge of current issues in emergent technology and scholarly communication, and an understanding of the ways in which technology interacts with the research lifecycle.
• Adoption of innovative services and technologies to develop scholarly and research programs and services.
• Demonstrated operational knowledge and/or management of information technology applications including, but not limited to, research enterprise tools, institutional repositories, resource list management solutions, integrated library management systems, Dematic, Springshare, Microsoft Azure, and/or Amazon AWS.
• Understand and value diversity and the importance of inclusion as demonstrated through a commitment to apply and incorporate the differences, complexities, and opportunities that diversity brings to an organization and institution.
• Demonstrated ability to recruit, retain, and develop library faculty and staff.
• Evidence of professional service, and a record of presentation and publications at a national level.

Additional Application Materials Required:

UCF requires all applications and supporting documents be submitted electronically through the Human Resources employment opportunities website, https://www.ucf.edu/jobs/ . In addition to the online application, interested candidates should upload a cover letter, a current curriculum vitae, and a list with contact information for three (3) professional references.

The selected candidate will be required to submit official transcripts (and, as applicable, U.S. degree equivalency evaluations) documenting the conferral of their qualifying academic credentials.

NOTE: Please have all documents ready when applying so they can be attached at that time. Once the online submission process is finalized, the system does not allow applicants to submit additional documents later.

Questions regarding this search may be directed to:  Frank Allen, Senior Associate Director, at frank.allen@ucf.edu .

Special Instructions to the Applicants:

This is a twelve-month, non-tenure track faculty position with a competitive benefits package including medical insurance, retirement options, paid annual, sick, and holiday leave. Salary and rank will be determined commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Job Close Date:

01/12/2023

Are Benefits Important to You?

Working at UCF has its perks!  In addition to helping drive change and having a positive impact by supporting our students, staff, and faculty, UCF offers:

• Benefit packages including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, healthcare flexible spending accounts, and an Employee Assistance Program.
• Paid time off, including annual and sick leave and paid holidays.
• Retirement savings options.
• Employee discounts, including tickets to many Orlando area attractions.
• Education assistance.
• Flexible work environment.

And more…For more benefits information, go to ‘Prospective Employees’ on the UCF Human Resources website (https://hr.ucf.edu/ )

Who Are We?

Founded in 1963 to fuel the region’s talent pipeline and support the growing U.S. space program, UCF is built to make a better future for our students and society. It’s one of the reasons U.S. News & World Report ranks UCF among the nation’s top 20 most innovative colleges, while Forbes, Kiplinger , and The Princeton Review rank us a best-value university. UCF is one of 14 universities nationwide designated as both a Hispanic-Serving Institution and a Research 1 university. With 13 colleges, including a fully accredited College of Medicine, UCF offers more than 220-degree programs between its main campus, downtown campus, hospitality campus, academic health sciences campus, and 11 UCF Connect centers located throughout the region. In addition, UCF extends its reach to communities in and beyond Central Florida by offering complete online programs leading to bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, Ph.D.'s., certificates, and more.

The University of Central Florida is proud to be a smoke-free campus and an E-Verify employer. Unless explicitly stated on the job posting, it is UCF’s expectation that an employee of UCF will reside in Florida as of the date the employment begins.

Additional Requirements related to Research Positions

Pursuant to Florida State Statute 1010.35, prior to offering employment to certain individuals in research-related positions, UCF is required to conduct additional screening. Applicants subject to additional screening include any citizen of a foreign country who is not a permanent resident of the U.S., or who is a citizen or permanent resident but is affiliated with or has had at least 1 year of higher education, employment, or training in China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Syria, or Venezuela.

The additional screening requirements only apply to employment in research-related positions, including, but not limited to faculty positions (including employed visiting positions), graduate positions, individuals compensated by research grants or contract funds, postdoctoral scholar positions, and undergraduate positions.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

As an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, UCF encourages all qualified applicants to apply, including women, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and members of traditionally underrepresented populations. UCF's Equal Opportunity Statement can be viewed at  http//www.oie.ucf.edu/documents/PresidentsStatement.pdf.

As a Florida public university, UCF makes all application materials and selection procedures available to the public upon request.

The University of Central Florida is proud to be a smoke-free campus and an E-Verify employer.