Head, Metadata Strategy

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Job Summary

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) seeks nominations and applications for a creative, collaborative, and experimental manager to serve as the inaugural Head of Metadata Strategy. This position is an excellent opportunity for a thoughtful, pragmatic, and technologically-savvy administrator who – in conjunction with the Head of Special Collections Management, the position to whom the Head reports – will work across the GRI on born digital content, digitized content, and various metadata projects and systems, among other future-forward endeavors.

 

The GRI plays a premier role among cultural heritage institutions, with one of the largest art libraries in the world, and extensive and growing archival collections. These resources serve an international community of researchers and provide avenues for the creation of new advanced knowledge about the visual arts, construed in the broadest terms. The GRI is a frontrunner in field-wide innovations in the history of art, information studies, and provenance research, and is positioned on the forefront of digital art history. The GRI is dedicated to developing and fostering professional and technological capacities in the world of libraries, archives, and museums.

 

The GRI is now at a crucial stage in its development as an institution, with a new and developing digital infrastructure to process, preserve, and present its archival collections and a recently adopted institutional approach to metadata strategy. With a newly created team of 7 within Special Collections Management and the expectation for further growth, the inaugural Head will have the opportunity to impact world-class services in support of research at the Getty and around the globe. This section will consolidate a shared body of expertise and play a shaping role in steering metadata strategy across the GRI and in partnership with Getty Digital, while also providing dedicated assistance for the management of digital and digitized content, metadata issues, technical concerns, and the evolution to linked data.

 

In addition to managing and overseeing this new team devoted to metadata operations at GRI, the inaugural Head will work across divisions and programs to assess current metadata practices, steer the development of a durable vision for institutional, cross-department metadata standards, and assist staff in the library, special collections, institutional archives, and research departments to implement them. As such, the role will require up-to-date expertise in metadata management, awareness of current and evolving schema for published, unpublished, and born-digital materials, excellent diplomatic and communication skills, a willingness to think creatively and strategically, demonstrated ability to navigate fluidly across administrative domains, and a dedication to excellence in the area of librarianship and information science.

 

To view the full position profile, visit Storbeck Search: https://www.dsgco.com/search/21637-grihead/. All expressions of interest, nominations, and inquiries should be directed to Matt Bunting, Storbeck Search (GRIhead@storbecksearch.com).

Major Job Responsibilities

• Oversee and Manage Metadata Strategy
• Consensus Building
• Workflow Assessment and Modification
• Staff Management and Development

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will embody an energetic, creative, collaborative and forward-thinking approach to the future of systems and metadata at the GRI. In addition, the Head of Metadata Strategy will possess an accredited Master’s degree in library or information science from an ALA-accredited institution (or international equivalent), plus a minimum of seven years of experience in a library, archives, museum, or research environment related to art or cultural heritage. The selected candidate will also have many of the following experiences and skills: 

• Excellent communication skills; 
• Familiarity with managing metadata and facilitating major system migrations and workflow changes preferred; 
• Experience in assessing skills and administering professional training preferred; and, 
• Supervisory experience and experience in institutional change management preferre