Librarian and Curator of Print Culture

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, seeks an academic general faculty member for the position of Librarian, to serve as the Curator of Print Culture. This is a tenure-ineligible position. We seek an individual who is eager to build collections that support the University’s “founding vision of discovery, innovation, and development of students from all walks of life” while focusing on integrating inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility into every aspect of this position.

This curator will join a team of committed cultural heritage memory employees who are dedicated to access, instruction, preservation, and reparative collection development. While they may support other collecting strengths, the Librarian will have a strong vision and understanding of print culture and will take primary responsibility for this important area, which includes book history, bibliography, rare books, and literary collections without regard to time or format of material. The Librarian curator works with a robust set of endowments and an active donor community to enhance our extraordinary collections.

As Librarian, a collaborative, partnership approach is expected to develop a strategic vision for collection development within Special Collections and is responsible for implementing that vision for their core subject areas. The Librarian may propose and/or evaluate proposals for new areas for collection building, and be an active participant and contributor to reference, access, and outreach activities including primary source instruction, support for scholarly research, development of exhibitions and research for publication and presentations.

Faculty and staff in the Small Special Collections Library steward an extraordinary collection documenting American history, particularly early American; American and English literature; bibliography, book history, and book arts; African American studies; the built environment; history of the state of Virginia and the University of Virginia; and material culture. As significant as our collections are, we recognize that there are silences and gaps in the documentary record. In support of our library’s reparative work, we seek an individual who understands archival and print silences and who brings a commitment to collection development, exhibition curation, and instruction that surfaces underdocumented and marginalized voices and who will lead students to see collections in new ways. The ideal candidate for this position is an intellectually curious individual, who is eager to learn the stories revealed in our collections, to build upon them, and to share them widely.