Location: New London, Connecticut
Salary: $70,000-$80,000 and other
Employment Term: Full time
Employer Contact: George Waterman [log in to unmask] (917)-513-4663

Website: visualartlibrary.org
Telephone: (917)-513-4663
Email: [log in to unmask]
Address: Harris Place, 165 State Street, New London, Connecticut 06320
Or: PO Box 589, New London, Connecticut 06320
 

To be the first librarian in this position is an unusual opportunity, full of new promise, with, we foresee, an expansive future. Watch the amazing growth of this library of worldwide contemporary art. Initially, this job will consist of coordinating the growth and general organization of the library, seeking, through grants and through our twice-yearly individual fundraising efforts, funding for cataloguing the library’s yet undocumented resources, funding for our growth and overhead and the coordination of part-time staff and interns from Connecticut College and other nearby colleges.

Salary $70,000-80,000

Benefits:  two week’s paid vacation, one-week sick leave, plus extra medical benefits depending on individual circumstances    

Director/ Librarian

Reporting to the board of the library, when a cataloger is hired,  the Librarian will then be responsible for the supervision of all technical services providing original and copy cataloging for general and special collections materials in multiple formats—including exhibition catalogs, monographs, artists’ publications such as books and periodicals, and audio-visual works—according to current standards, including LCSH, LC classifications, and local practices.

Qualifications

• Must have MLS/MLIS from an ALA accredited program and a minimum of 3-5 years of increased responsibilities with administrative library experience including a minimum of three years of supervisory experience. Budget and fundraising, alongside the day-to-day running of a visual art library. Art History degree/background and/or experience at similar art/museum library would be helpful.
•  Experience working in an academic or museum library.
• Experience initiating and maintaining relationships with vendors and contract staff.
• Detail-oriented with ability to organize and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines.
• Ability to lift 30 pounds and reach high and low shelves
• .May have other duties as assigned

How to apply: 

Please email [log in to unmask] and attach a current resume and a cover letter for your application to be considered for this position.

Background of VISUAL ART LIBRARY

Visual Art Library began 40 years ago in a loft in Soho New York City, then the center of the New York art world. It became a not-for-profit 501c(3) in 2012 and it was moved from Soho (there was no more room) to New London, Connecticut. It is now located in 5,000 square feet in the historic and architecturally significant Harris Place building on State Street next to the New London City Hall and only a block and a half from the historic HH Richardson Amtrak train station.

George Waterman, the founder has been involved in the art world since his studies of the Italian high renaissance at Harvard University. He joined the Collection Committee at The Rhode Island School Of Design in about 1967, (his collection was exhibited there in 1968) and has been on that RISD collection committee most of the years since. He has also been a member of the Harvard Overseers’ Committee to visit the Art Museums, a trustee of the Rhode Island School of Design, on the first board of directors of The DIA Art Foundation, a member of the collections Committee of The Whitney Museum, The Library Committee of The Museum of Modern Art, and a New York trustee of The Archives of American Art.

He began accumulating the information about art through books and catalogues and ephemera in the 1970s. In 2012 he made a promised gift of all his books, catalogues, probably then about 40,000, and all the ephemera, to the newly formed 501c(3), Visual Art Library. Since that time, he has given many more books and catalogues and new donors have also given additional books and catalogues. These outside gifts now exceed 25,000-30,000.  Donations are now being received at an average of about 500-1,000 books and catalogues monthly.

New London, founded in 1652, is a historic waterfront whaling town at the confluence of the Thames River and Long Island Sound. It is a transportation hub, an important stop for the Amtrak Washington to Boston line. It is also served by the Shoreline commuter train making all stops to New Haven and by ferries to Block Island, Fishers Island and to Long Island at Orient Point and by Greyhound bus line.

It is a town that is changing in dynamic ways. The library is located only a block and a half from this transportation center. Construction has just begun there, on the water side of the Amtrak Station for the 5 floor, 80,000 square foot, $50 million National Coast Guard Museum. Also, nearby, work is underway on the $150 million deep-water pier to service the wind farms now being planned off the coast and to be finished in 2023. The port of New London will be the first in the country to host the first U.S.-built offshore wind turbine installation vessel, the 472-foot Charybdis. It will be home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm hub for staging and shipping massive wind turbines to sites well off the Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York coasts. The first wind farms are expected to provide clean energy for 350,000 homes. The largest employer in the area is General Dynamics/Electric Boat with at least 12,000 employees in the New London, Groton area. It has been adding about 2,000 new employees yearly.

The town is changing dramatically, most all the historic 3 and 4 story buildings in the downtown area have been purchased by investors and developers in the last two or three years to provide housing on their second and third floors. Connecticut College has just leased long term spaces for 60 students just a block from the library.