Location: Middletown, CT 06459
Salary: $50,800-$59,500
Employment Term: Full time
Required Experience: Bachelor’s degree in a related field and at least 2 years’ related experience working with image collections OR an equivalent combination of education, training, and
experience
Employer Contact: All inquiries must be directed to our HR Department
Compensation Practices
Experience is taken into consideration in the determination of salary offers. For more information visit
https://www.wesleyan.edu/hr/handbook/compensation-practices/index.html
Position Details
The Visual Resources Curator will manage and develop the Visual Resources Center (VRC) and its collection of visual materials related to art, architecture, and visual culture in all formats. They are a member of the Digital Initiatives
department within the University Library, report to the Head of Digital Initiatives, and work closely with the Digital Asset Coordinator, the Art History & Visual Resources Librarian, and the faculty, students, fellows, and staff affiliated with Art and Art
History and the broader Wesleyan community.
Digital Initiatives manages Wesleyan University’s digital collections, including the digital and analog images in the visual resources collection, which support the teaching and research of the University’s
faculty.
The VR Curator provides assistance to Wesleyan faculty and students in all aspects of research, teaching, and learning with visual materials. They implement forward-looking practices in building and providing access to visual materials, including enhancing
digital access to the collections and promoting and supporting the use thereof.
Responsibilities include:
- Manages all aspects of the Visual Resources digital media and analog slide collections
- Proactively and collaboratively engages in long-range planning and implementation for visual resource collections, facilities, and services
- Curates image collections that reflect current and developing curricular and research needs; seeks to expand collections in ways that build and honor diverse representations of artists, subjects, and materials; regularly evaluates
existing collections for currency and alignment with curriculum
- Catalogs and publishes digital objects to library platforms; applies innovative methodologies for efficiency in metadata creation
- Serves as project leader for content transfers and processing from varied acquisitions sources, and communicates regularly with constituents about the status of the work
- Serves as the Artstor/JSTOR Forum administrator and engages with vendors and peer institutions on best practices for those tools
- Recommends platforms, tools, and databases for visual resources that best facilitate teaching and scholarship using the collection
- Assists faculty and students in integrating visual resources in lectures, presentations, course websites
- Provides instruction and research support for faculty and students working with visual materials and interested in the scholarly use of images as related to research, copyright, and visual literacy
- Promotes visual resources services and collections materials
- Stays up-to-date within the field and seeks to apply continuous improvement to VRC and Digital Initiatives workflows
and processes
- Performs additional duties as assigned
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field and at least 2 years’ related experience working with image collections OR an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience
- Experience creating descriptive metadata
- Knowledge of curating image collection
- Awareness of diversity and equity in visual resources and an understanding of how that might be applied to curating representative and well-rounded image collections
- Demonstrated ability to manage projects, plan and execute workflows, track progress, and meet deadlines and objectives
- Experience with digital asset and content management systems
- Self-directed with a proven ability to work effectively both independently and collaboratively
- Demonstrated ability to learn and implement new software, technologies, and technical standards
- Effective communications skills with the ability to present information and ideas to various audiences
- Demonstrated commitment to work within a diverse environment and interact collegially with individuals of different backgrounds
Preferred Qualifications:
- Knowledge of cataloging and metadata schemas for visual culture and art related materials
- Experience working with Artstor/JSTOR Forum and/or Islandora
- Working knowledge of image copyright issues
Special Instructions to Applicants
The position is open until filled. For full consideration please apply by
October 1, 2022, when first review of applications will begin.
