Job Details

Description

The Materials Manager oversees the acquisition, organization, and preservation of library materials, managing both physical and digital inventories.

• Maintains an up-to-date Collection Development Policy which provides guidelines for the selection, retention and weeding of materials.

• Supervises the selection, training, coaching and evaluation of direct reports.

• Reviews and approves the timesheets of staff including time worked and time off.

• Monitors and addresses individual needs of employees and resolves problems and/or conflicts within the departments promptly.

• Assesses and manages workflows and processes and leads the departments in continual process improvement with a patron focus.

• Oversees the acquisition, licensing, and renewal of electronic resources (databases, e-journals, e-books) including negotiating with vendors and analyzing usage data to determine ROI.

• Selects materials, in collaboration with library staff, for the library's collection, for either leasing or ownership, on the basis of customer requests, staff suggestions, selection tools such as reviewing journals, and professional expertise.

• Ensures that the cataloging, processing and addition of print and non-print materials to the collection occurs in a consistent and timely fashion.

• Ensures the integrity of the ILS database within library and consortium guidelines including the authority file and quality control of cataloging records.

• Oversees the assessment of donations of new and used material for suitability as additions to the library's collection.

• Oversees the evaluation of damaged materials in the library's collection as to whether they should be repaired, replaced, withdrawn.

• Develops and maintains a guideline on how to identify materials in the library's collection that should be weeded based.

• Communicates with vendors in a friendly and professional manner as a representative of the library.

• Responds to customer-initiated requests for purchase of materials in a friendly, timely and effective manner.

• Participates in resolving customer objections to materials in the library's collection.

• Seeks to proactively determine the collection-related wants and needs of the public as a basis for purchase decisions.

• Prepares reports and collects data on collection and materials related operations.

• Manages the materials budget including effective use of available funds and responsible fiduciary decision making to stay within budget.

• Maintains open lines of communication with other departments so that they have input on and knowledge of purchasing and cataloging decisions.

• Assists the Operations Director in long-range planning.

Requirements

• MLS Degree from an ALA-accredited institution or equivalent.

• Minimum 2 years of supervisory or management experience.

• Four years of collection development experience in a public library setting.

• Understanding of RDA, AACR2, Library of Congress Subject and Name headings, Dewey Decimal Classification, MARC formats and principles of authority control.

• General knowledge of library principles, practices, technology, and procedures.

• Proven ability to direct and motivate others in a professional and effective manner.

• Excellent public relations skills in interacting with library staff, patrons, vendors and community organizations.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Must possess a positive attitude and be committed to quality customer service.

• Must possess ability to read and interpret a fund-based budget and work accurately with numbers.

• Must possess ability to produce, read and interpret computer-generated reports and make collection-related decisions based on the data.

COMPETENCIES

• Technology: Demonstrates general understanding of basic computer skills coupled with an understanding and knowledge of library provided equipment and software including the databases, catalog, and ILS. Demonstrates some knowledge of the application of regular expressions to transform text data in an advanced text editor such as Notepad++. Can interpret human-readable structured data interchange formats, such as JSON and XML.

• Teamwork: The ability to work collaboratively with others to achieve department goals.

• Inclusion: Commitment to interact appropriately, fairly, and equitably with all; the ability to demonstrate and foster respect for all individuals and points of view.

• Ethics: Commitment to the Ohio Ethics Law and the basic ethics and values of library service.

• Intellectual Freedom: The understanding and support of the library's role in providing free and equal access to ideas, information, resources, and services, from all points of view, without restriction, to every individual.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• While performing duties of job, employee typically handles office equipment, objects or Physical requirements include: sedentary work - exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently to carry, lift, push, pull or otherwise move objects.

• The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.