The Director leads an engaged and effective team composed of 25 FTE, 5 contract employees, and approximately 35 students. The Director is a member of the Libraries’ senior leadership team and partners with managers across the organization to advance the mission of Avery and that of the Libraries and the University as a whole. The Director oversees all aspects of Avery’s operations, including collection development, research services, access services, facilities management, and Avery Index* operations.

We encourage individuals of diverse backgrounds, cultures, experiences, identities, and abilities to apply for this exceptional opportunity to join an evolving Libraries and University community. Columbia University Libraries is a globally-recognized academic research library system, serving one of the world’s most important centers of research and learning in the most exciting and dynamic city in the world. Talented Libraries staff build, sustain, and make discoverable collections that transcend traditional boundaries of format and domain, keeping pace with a dynamic and rapidly evolving information environment and creating opportunities for users to encounter 4,000 years of human thought.

Our decisions are informed by new curricula developed to meet the needs of a more diverse student body, new and emerging areas of research from a broad spectrum of researchers, including graduate students and newly-hired faculty, as well as by perspectives from the diminished or entirely lost voices of historically oppressed, marginalized, or underserved populations and communities. As a workplace, the Libraries provide a supportive, connected environment where every employee’s perspective is valued and every employee is encouraged to grow. All staff members have an impact on Columbia’s mission to advance knowledge at the highest levels and make the results of research accessible to the world.

Avery Library and its Collections

Founded in 1890, it is one of the foremost repositories supporting professional and academic programs in architecture, urban planning and design, historic preservation, art history, and archaeology. Avery Library comprises five important collection and stewardship areas: general collections supporting research and learning at Columbia University; rare books; drawings and archives; the University’s art properties collection; and the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals. Please visit Avery Library’s Collections & History website for a detailed description of its founding and the scope of its collections.

• Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library- https://library.columbia.edu/locations/avery.html

• Avery Index- https://library.columbia.edu/locations/avery/avery-index.html

• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals- https://library.columbia.edu/locations/avery/avery-index.html

• Avery Library Collections and History- https://library.columbia.edu/locations/avery/about.html

Minimum Qualifications

● MLS, PhD or other relevant advanced degree or an equivalent combination of education and

experience in a library, museum, or research setting

● Strong background in architecture and/or art history

● Commitment to building and advancing diversity and inclusion in staffing, collections, and services

● Leadership skills and a history of progressively responsible management experience

● The ability to influence and collaborate effectively with colleagues, faculty, students, and partner

institutions

● Analytical and problem solving skills

● Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

● Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines

Preferred Qualifications

● Experience managing budgets (e.g., collections, personnel, operations)

● Space design and facilities management experience

● Experience imagining, identifying, and implementing new technologies to advance teaching, learning,

collections stewardship, and the scholarly research endeavor more broadly

● Experience cultivating prospective and existing benefactors, and the ability to keep donors engaged

with Avery, its staff, its collections, and its spaces, both physical and digital

● Evidence of scholarly activity in fields related to architecture and/or art history