Director of Digital Scholarship and Scholarly Communication
Ball State University
Muncie, IN
Job posting number: #7306091 (Ref:BSU47418)
Posted: April 12, 2025
Application Deadline: Open Until Filled
Job Description
Provides leadership and direction for the Ball State University Libraries' Digital Scholarship and Scholarly Communication personnel, programs, services, and platforms; identifies, implements, and assesses technology platforms and services to increase adoption and publishing of open access resources on campus; provides campus community with instruction, training, and consultative services and resources related to copyright and fair use in scholarship and teaching and encourages compliance with U.S. Copyright Law and adoption of best practices; explore opportunities and next steps for research data management; support the Ball State strategic plan.
The Ball State University Libraries seeks a dynamic, effective, and visionary leader to head up our Digital Scholarship and Scholarly Communication team. The director will be responsible for developing and growing the suite of services around open access publishing, scholarly communication, digital scholarship projects, and open educational resources. If you would like to be an essential part of developing and energizing our digital scholarship and scholarly communication programs, we want to talk to you! Apply today!
Job Function:
Provides leadership and direction for the Ball State University Libraries' Digital Scholarship and Scholarly Communication personnel, programs, services, and platforms; identifies, implements, and assesses technology platforms and services to increase adoption and publishing of open access resources on campus; provides campus community with instruction, training, and consultative services and resources related to copyright and fair use in scholarship and teaching and encourages compliance with U.S. Copyright Law and adoption of best practices; explore opportunities and next steps for research data management; support the Ball State strategic plan.
Minimum Education:
ALA-accredited MLS/MLIS/MIS degree or equivalent combination of relevant academic preparation and experience.
Preferred Education:
Additional advanced degrees, ABA-accredited J.D.
Minimum Experience:
Two or more years of professional related experience; supervisory experience
Preferred Experience:
Academic library experience securing copyright clearance; experience with implementation of scholarly communication and/or digital scholarship programming; experience with project planning in a library or information management setting.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Provide leadership, guidance, and direction to Digital Scholarship and Scholarly Communications personnel, departmental operations, and projects; develop, plan, guide, and assess user-centered services to support digital scholarship, open access scholarly publishing, and research data management services.
- Provide leadership for copyright activities of the University Libraries, serving as a campus resource regarding fair use and copyright compliance issues; maintain up-to-date knowledge of copyright and intellectual property best practices and provide guidance to University community members in adhering to best practices related to intellectual property, fair use, and copyright.
- Develop, promote, and assess an inclusive campus-wide program of open access publishing, and digital scholarship to preserve and provide access to student, faculty, and staff scholarship. Explore, envision, and develop a program of research data management for the University Libraries.
- Provide leadership in planning, implementation, and assessment of effective and strategic use of platforms and technology tools for digital scholarship, open access publishing, institutional repository and open journal publishing platforms, and research data management.
- Develop and maintain a broad network of campus and community collaborators around digital scholarship, scholarly communication, and intellectual property issues; foster dialogue and collaboration on copyright-related issues with the Office of General Counsel, Sponsored Projects Administration, and Division of Online and Strategic Learning.
- Assign and review work, orient and train staff, and make recommendations in all areas related to supervision, including but not limited to interviewing and selection, compensation, discipline, performance appraisal, and training and career development of personnel.
- Actively participate in and positively contribute to the activities of the University Libraries, university, and profession through such opportunities as related professional organizations, presentations, committee service, publication, etc.; keep abreast of professional literature and scholarly developments in areas of specialization and pursue opportunities for relevant professional development.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
- Provide consultation services to faculty, students, and staff regarding copyright and fair use best practices in scholarly publishing and classroom teaching.
- Oversee the development, implementation and assessment of educational programming and consultative services for faculty, staff, and students to increase awareness of innovative and evolving digital scholarship methods, and scholarly communications trends and models.
At Ball State University, we recognize inclusive excellence as an integral endeavor to fulfill our University’s mission and our strategic plan. We recruit, support, and retain a diverse population of students, faculty, and staff. We encourage and reward diversity of thought. We promote a work environment that encourages and rewards innovation and creativity. We pledge to keep Inclusive Excellence at the highest level of institutional importance and as a foundation in all that we strive to do. Our over-arching goal for Inclusive Excellence is to adopt a university-wide Inclusive Excellence approach to academic, administrative support, and service functions of the university. We believe Inclusive Excellence must be infused in every step we take.
