Position: Map Librarian - University of Florida - Florida

Map Librarian - University of Florida - Florida

"The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida seek a customer service oriented individual to lead, develop, and manage the Map and Imagery Library, the largest map library in the southeastern U.S. and the fifth largest academic map library in the United States."

All I have to say about that is: Wow! Now, GIS skills/experience is only listed under the preferred qualifications, but the management of such a map collection plus geospatial technologies is something really special.

Let's take a look at some snippets:

• Collaborates with the Spatial Information Services Team and Digital Library Center on the planning and implementation of digital spatial and numeric data collection initiatives, policies, and procedures that utilize Map and Imagery Library resources.


• Provides reference services, individual consultations and instruction to faculty, staff and students for Map and Imagery and Government Documents collections.


• Supervises and coordinates the efforts of three fulltime Map and Imagery Library staff members and multiple student assistants to achieve service, collection, and processing goals.

This position here is a tenure-track position, and I had a bad experience the one time I was in such a position. I try to be open-minded, however, and suppose it might not be a universally bad situation. As long as librarians are indeed treated as faculty with sabbatical opportunities and other time off for research/writing, then perhaps it can then work. In my previous position this was not the case and our faculty status was not taken seriously by ourselves or the teaching faculty. It really worked against us. Anyways (I sure did digress), something here to consider. (Will there be increasing pressure for tenure-track librarians to bring grant dollars into the university similar to teaching faculty? If not currently, perhaps in a few years as budgets continue to tighten up? Don't scoff at this as ridiculous. I for one do not want such pressure.)

Salary is $40,000 to less than $50,000. I'd like it to be higher, but it sounds about right.