Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Position: Librarian

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries seek an innovative and energetic Japanese Studies Librarian with broad knowledge and experience in developing and managing library resources to support teaching and research for faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students in Japanese Studies, with preference to candidates who also specialize in Korean Studies.  The position broadly supports the interdisciplinary interests of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations as well as the Center for East Asian Studies and the James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies.

Faculty research and teaching for Japanese Studies includes the humanities and the social sciences with particular strength in Buddhism, pre-modern and modern Japanese literature, history, performing and visual arts, pre-modern Japanese architecture and archaeology, medieval studies, Tokugawa studies, and gender studies. In Korean Studies, Penns areas of strength include history,art history, sociology, and anthropology.

Penn Libraries’ East Asian Collection holds an estimated 266,000 volumes, about 35 percent of which comprises the Japanese and the Korean collections.  In addition to a large number of monographic volumes, journals, and microfilms, the Libraries provide access to major specialized electronic databases.

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League comprehensive research university in Philadelphia founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin and his circle. It comprises twelve schools, 4,200 faculty and an enrollment exceeding 20,000 students, almost equally divided between undergraduate and graduate/professional school students. The Penn Libraries include fifteen libraries and an off-site research annex. System-wide scholarly resources number nearly seven million books, almost 100,000 e-journals, 1,100 databases and more than 1.5M local digital assets. Penn is a leader in the development of digital libraryservices and collections and is aggressively experimenting with and adopting new technology in research and teaching. Penn actively participates in collaborative initiatives including the BorrowDirect and EZ-Borrow resource-sharing networks, the HathiTrust, the Center for Research Libraries, LOCKSS,and Portico.  As a founding partner of the Kuali Open Library Environment and Global Open Knowledge Base projects, Penn is at the forefront of developing a next-generation community source technology to support academic libraryoperations.

Position Summary and Overall Responsibilities

Reporting to the Director of Collection Development & Management, the Japanese Studies Librarian selects and acquires scholarly resources from and about Japan in a wide range of subjects and formats in both Japanese and Western languages, in support of Penn’s current and anticipated academic programs in consultation with faculty members. Leading candidates will also have facility in Korean in support of the growing academic program at Penn supported by the Korea Foundation,the James Joo-Jin Kim, and the Moon Familyendowments.

The Japanese Studies Librarian provides specialized reference, instruction,and academic liaison services to Penn faculty and students, both undergraduate and graduate, with research interests in Japan in all departments and schools where Japan is included as a topic of study. S/he also maintains the Japanese Collection website as well as the East Asian Seminar Room with its own reference collection and teaching facility.  The growing Korean Collection and its constituents have comparable service needs and expectations.

The Japanese Studies Librarian participates in the process of acquisition and bibliographic control of all types of resources in Japanese, using the Voyager library management system and the OCLC bibliographic utility. The incumbent supervises a full-time Library Specialist and may perform original cataloging and complex copy cataloging while also providing appropriate classification and subject analysis according to national and local standards.

The Japanese Studies Librarian works collaboratively with library colleagues, especially those in Area Studies, and with humanities and social science librarians, their respective campus constituencies, and donors.  S/he is also expected to participate in the larger field of East Asian librarianship on the national and international levels with particular emphasis on fostering collaboration.

The Japanese Studies Librarian must have knowledge of current and developing patterns of scholarship and publishing in relevant fields of study and be committed to the international and interdisciplinary strengths of Penn’s academic programs.   The successful candidate will combine a focus on traditional formats with support for digital approaches to humanities and social science research and the development of collections in digital media, and is expected to seek out external funding opportunities and develop
collaborative partnerships worldwide. The incumbent will have the opportunity to teach a graduate-level course in Japanese bibliography and problems of research.

Qualifications

Required:

Accredited Masters degree in library or information science with a minimum of three years of relevant professional experience or the equivalent in education and training.  Note:  To qualify for the rank of D, at least five years of relevant experience is required

Advanced knowledge of Japanese history, literature,and culture.

Knowledge of the Japanese publishing industry and trends in scholarship.

Fluent command of both written and spoken Japanese and English.

Knowledge of and/or experience with national cataloging rules and practices (AACR2, RDA, MARC21, LC classification & Subject Headings), including Romanization standards.

Ability to work independently and collegially.

Preferred:

Graduate degree in East Asian Studies.

Reading knowledge of Korean.

Knowledge of trends in Korean scholarship and publishing.

Familiarity with metadata standards for digital collections.

Working knowledge of bibliographic utilities (preferably OCLC Connexion) and integrated librarysystems.

Demonstrated experience with new technologies and their application to teaching, research and digitallibrary services.

Rank and Salary: Commensurate with experience.

Contact:

To Apply: Potential candidates are invited to submit a letter of application that addresses the needs and qualifications of the position, along with their resume and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references who can address the suitability of the candidate for the position described, as well as complete an on-line employment application at http://www.hr.upenn.edu/jobs(Job Reference #121133700).

Applications will be accepted immediately and the position will remain open until filled; however, applications submitted by December 5, 2012 will receive priority consideration.

The University of Pennsylvania is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Website: http://www.library.upenn.edu/hr/professional/