Assistant / Associate Professor of Emerging Technologies and Immersive Learning

Emerging Technologies and Immersive Learning Librarian

Assistant or Associate Professor, University Library

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Position Available: The expected start date is as soon as possible after the closing date. This is a 100% twelve-month, Library tenure-system appointment.  

Position Description: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks a dynamic faculty member to serve as a liaison librarian providing support for faculty and students utilizing emerging and immersive technologies in research and instruction. The Emerging Technologies and Immersive Learning Librarian will develop services and support for emerging and immersive technologies including but not limited to Extended Reality (XR), 3D printing, visualization, AI, machine learning, 3D modeling, 3D scanning and photogrammetry. The successful candidate will maintain an understanding and awareness of the changing ecosystem of emerging and immersive technologies and their application in research and instruction in higher education.

The University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign values diversity of thought, perspective, experience and people, and is actively committed to a culture of inclusion and respect. We are dedicated to the practices of social justice, diversity, and equality, and strive     to overcome historical and divisive biases in our society and embrace diverse points of view as assets to the fabric of our community. All positions will be called on to contribute to building this environment in the Library and throughout the campus community, and we encourage candidates to apply who share these values.

The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. For more information, visit http://go.illinois.edu/EEO.

Duties and Responsibilities:

As scholarship is increasingly born digital and reliant on emerging and immersive technologies, there is a growing investment in these areas at Illinois to support the entrepreneurship, innovation, and design thinking pedagogies in higher education. As a result, there is a clear need to provide support services to the diverse population of faculty, students, and staff utilizing emerging and immersive technologies in research and instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Library is a critical partner and plays a leadership role in examining service needs and providing the infrastructure across disciplines to integrate emerging and immersive technologies into the campus scholarly communication fabric.  By bridging learning, research, and practice, library faculty are playing an increasingly critical role in the support of emerging and immersive technologies in academia.

The incumbent will build on work in the Grainger Engineering Library IDEA Lab, Media Commons at the Undergraduate Library, Scholarly Commons, and with various campus partnerships. As a Library faculty member, this position will examine and bridge the subject and functional domains to identify the technical requirements as well as the pedagogical, instructional, and research affordances and impact of emerging technologies in higher education. This position will be based out of the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center and will support the faculty and student needs around emerging and immersive technologies across the Library and campus.

The position will report to the Head of the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center and will be critical to developing and supporting centers for innovation in the Library, including the IDEA Lab, Media Commons, and the Scholarly Commons. The position will collaborate with other library faculty and staff, Library IT, Campus Technology Services, the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, and the Siebel Center for Design.

Specific duties will include (but are not limited to):

• Serve as liaison to designated departments

• Develop, implement, and assess instructional and research support services for emerging and immersive technologies in the Library

• Provide consultations, instruction, workshops, research support, and reference services to faculty, students, and staff on the application and integration of emerging and immersive technologies in research and course content
• Maintain an understanding and awareness of the changing ecosystem of emerging and immersive technologies
• Participate in Library and campus committees and groups in supporting emerging and immersive technology needs at Illinois
• Assists in the supervision and management of the work performed by the Emerging Technology Library IT Specialist
• Participate in and contribute to University Library engagement and communication efforts.
• Contribute to the national and international reputation of the University Library through professional research, service and collaboration with national and international colleagues and organizations.

The Physical Sciences and Engineering Division of the University Library is currently home (division-wide) to 8 faculty librarians (including this position), 13 staff, and 4.25 FTE graduate assistants from the School of Information Sciences. Served by the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center and the other PSED Libraries, the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois is home to more than 9,000 undergraduates, 3,400 graduates and 430 faculty involved in more than 2,000 research projects with $239 million in research expenditures for FY 2017. The University ranked 7th among U.S. universities (and top in the Big Ten) in number of undergraduate and graduate alumni hired in 2016 by the 25 largest Silicon Valley employers. More about the Grainger College of Engineering is available at https://engineering.illinois.edu.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Master’s Degree or PhD in a relevant field

• Demonstrated experience with emerging and immersive technologies such as Extended Reality (XR), 3D media capture and asset management, visualization, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning
• Demonstrated understanding of the pedagogical impact, affordances, and best practices of emerging and immersive technologies on research and instruction in higher education
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with diverse groups and populations in the delivery of educational programs
• Evidence of the ability to conduct scholarly research and work to meet the requirements for promotion and tenure
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly in person and in writing
• Demonstrated ability to exercise independent judgment and participate in collaborative endeavors

Preferred:

• Experience supporting emerging and immersive technologies in an academic institution
• Experience providing reference or research support services in an academic library setting
• Experience providing instruction
• Demonstrated supervisory experience

Environment: Founded in 1867 and the nation’s leading land-grant University, Illinois has a long track record of innovation in emerging technologies, including such notable inventions as the first graphical web browser, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and the Light-emitting Diode (LED). With more than 14 million volumes and significant digital resources, the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ranks second in size among academic research libraries in the United States and first among public university libraries in the world. As the intellectual heart of the campus, the Library is committed to maintaining the strongest possible collections and services and engaging in research and development activities in pursuit of the University’s mission of teaching, scholarship, and public service. The Library currently employs approximately 80 faculty and 300 academic professionals, staff, and graduate assistants.

Salary and Rank:  Salary commensurate with credentials and experience. Librarians have faculty rank, and must demonstrate excellence in librarianship, research, and university/professional/community service in order to meet university standards for tenure and promotion. Library faculty have an obligation to remain professionally informed, to pursue the discovery of new knowledge related to their field of expertise, to disseminate the results of their scholarly work, and to seek opportunities for service to the Library, campus, state, nation and profession. Library faculty are governed by University statements on review and promotion found in Article IX of the Statutes, and in Provost’s Communication No. 9  https://provost.illinois.edu/policies/provosts-communications/communication-9-promotion-and-tenure/  and Provost’s Communication No. 13 https://provost.illinois.edu/policies/provosts-communications/communication-13-review-of-faculty-in-year-three-of-the-probationary-period/. For more information on library tenure and promotion, see https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/promotion-and-tenure-advisory-committee.

Terms of Appointment: Twelve-month appointment; 24 annual vacation days; 11 annual paid holidays; 12 annual sick-leave days (cumulative), plus an additional 13 sick-leave days (non-cumulative) available, if needed, each year; health insurance requiring a small co-payment is provided to employee (with the option to purchase coverage for spouse and dependents); required participation in State Universities Retirement System (SURS) (8% of annual salary is withheld and is refundable upon termination), with several options for participation in additional retirement plans; newly-hired employees are covered by the Medicare portion of Social Security and are subject to its deduction.

Campus and Community: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a comprehensive and major public land-grant university (Doctoral/Research University-Extensive) that is ranked among the best in the world. Chartered in 1867, it provides undergraduate and graduate education in more than 150 fields of study, conducts theoretical and applied research, and provides public service to the state and the nation. It employs 3,000 faculty members who serve 31,000 undergraduates and 12,000 graduate and professional students; approximately 25% of faculty receives campus-wide recognition each year for excellence in teaching. More information about the campus is available at www.illinois.edu.

The University is located in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, which have a combined population of 100,000 and are situated about 140 miles south of Chicago, 120 miles west of Indianapolis, and 170 northeast of St. Louis. The University and its surrounding communities offer a cultural and recreational environment ideally suited to the work of a major research institution. For more information about the community, visit: http://illinois.edu/about/community/community.html or http://www.ccchamber.org/

To Apply:  To ensure full consideration, please complete your candidate profile at https://jobs.illinois.edu and upload a letter of interest, resume, and contact information including email addresses for three professional references. Applications not submitted through this website will not be considered. For questions, please call: 217-333-8169.

Deadline: In order to ensure full consideration we urge candidates to submit application materials on or before April 3, 2020.

The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer.

As a qualifying federal contractor, the University of Illinois System uses E-Verify to verify employment eligibility.

Category: 1-Faculty
College Name or Administrative Unit: University Library
Title: University Library: Emerging Technologies and Immersive Learning Librarian - Grainger Engineering Library (130117)
Open Date: 02/28/2020
Close Date: 04/03/2020

In your application, please refer to Polytechnicpositions.com