College Librarian

Colorado College is at an exciting inflection point in its 147-year history and seeks a creative, collaborative, and strategic leader to serve as the inaugural College Librarian. This is a unique opportunity to lead a collaborative, highly motivated library staff while forging effective partnerships with new college leadership at the highest levels. Nominations, inquiries, and applications are invited.

A private, four-year liberal arts college with roughly 2,200 undergraduates, Colorado College is located on a beautiful 92-acre campus in downtown Colorado Springs that features historically recognized buildings and innovative contemporary architecture, including a 2017 renovation and expansion of Tutt Library. Consistently ranked among the top 30 national liberal arts colleges, Colorado College is the only institution of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region. Best known for their innovative Block Plan, where students take, and professors teach, only one class at a time, Colorado College attracts top students seeking new perspectives and an array of experiential learning opportunities possible only in an immersive learning environment.

Colorado College’s mission is to provide the finest liberal arts education in the country, and in 2018, the college made the commitment to become an antiracist institution as a central component to that mission. Students, faculty, and staff are working together to ensure that all of their policies, procedures, practices and activities are antiracist and reflect CC’s core values.  The initial goals are articulated in the Antiracism Implementation Plan.

The newly renovated and expanded Charles L. Tutt Library supports Colorado College's inquiry-based, active learning curriculum with robust services and a vast array of experts, technologies, and learning spaces. The library serves as the intellectual hub of the campus, where students and faculty can do scholarly work in a variety of innovative and shared spaces. The campus community has access to over 425,000 physical volumes, a climate-controlled Special Collections vault, and an online collection that supports teaching and research at Colorado College. The Albert Seay Library of Music and Art complements the services and collections that Tutt provides, with a rich collection of scores, books, printed music, reference materials, and sound/video recordings in a variety of formats.

Reporting to the dean of the faculty and acting provost, Claire Oberon Garcia, the inaugural college librarian will serve as the chief librarian for the college and provide strategic vision and leadership for the Colorado College Library which includes collections, electronic resources and serials, music, metadata, research services, circulation, cataloging, archives, teaching and learning, digital scholarship and repository, and The Press at CC, a letterpress and book arts studio dedicated to education through the arts and histories of the book. They will lead a team of 29 dedicated librarians and staff members, serving around 2,200 students and 196 faculty. The new College Librarian will envision a future for the library as a major site of support for and expression of Colorado College's mission and core values. They will be active participants in college-wide discussions of creating and enhancing liberal arts teaching and learning that are relevant to 21st-century challenges and opportunities. They will raise the visibility of and advocate for the library a key player in the execution of the college’s strategic goals, including the advancement of the college’s commitment to antiracism within the library and beyond. The new College Librarian will help position the library to contribute significantly to the college's future – one that reflects, and is adaptive to, the changing landscape of higher education and fosters and supports the unique block schedule offered at Colorado College.

The successful candidate must have a Master of Library Science and a record of demonstrated leadership in an academic library, with increasing responsibilities, which include effective supervision of professional librarians and commitment to realizing the values of a liberal arts education in a library context. An ability to inspire, set goals, and innovate; to engage and unite stakeholders; to listen carefully and communicate persuasively; to build strong relationships and collaborate effectively; to understand and support the needs of all disciplines and inter-disciplines; and to operate library administrative and budgetary functions with a high level of skill are all desired qualities. Most importantly, a steadfast commitment to the success of students and faculty in a dynamic college grounded in the liberal arts is essential.

All applications, nominations and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or resume and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the profile available at www.wittkieffer.com.

Application materials should be submitted using WittKieffer’s candidate portal.

Nominations and inquiries can be directed to Jessica Herrington, Jevon Walton and Suzanne Teer

ColoradoCollegeLibrarian@wittkieffer.com

Compensation Range: $145,000 to $180,000

Benefits: https://www.coloradocollege.edu/offices/humanresources/benefits/index.html

Colorado College aims to provide the finest liberal arts education in the country. As a leading institution in higher education, we strive for inclusive excellence in access to, and development and delivery of, outstanding learning opportunities and success for our diverse community of individuals who teach, learn, and work at the college. We pursue the equal opportunity of individuals to fully participate in our mission.

Colorado College is an equal opportunity employer committed to increasing the diversity of its community. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, gender identity or expression, disability, or sexual orientation in our educational programs and activities or our employment practices.