2021/22 Kress Fellowship in Art Librarianship, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Posted January 26, 2021
Description
The Yale University Library welcomes applications for the 2021/22 Kress Fellowship in Art Librarianship. The Kress Fellowship is intended for a recent graduate from library school who wishes to pursue a career in art librarianship, and is made possible through the generosity of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Through this fellowship, the Kress Foundation seeks to ensure the growth of the discipline by promoting the advancement of new professionals. The Haas Family Arts Library at Yale serves an array of academic and museum programs, architects, artists and scholars. Kress Fellows have opportunities to interact with faculty, staff and students in the Schools of Architecture, Art, and Drama; Department of the History of Art; and two university art museums, the Yale Center for British Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. They also have opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from throughout the Yale University Library, including the Sterling Memorial Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The rich professional and scholarly resources of New York City and Boston’s art libraries and museums are within two hours’ travel, providing further opportunities for professional growth and professional contact with colleagues in the region.
Responsibilities:
The Kress Fellowship is a 10-month appointment and focuses on multiple areas of art librarianship including public services, collection development and management, special collections, and digital collections. Focusing on special collections this year, projects and activities will draw on subject areas served by the Haas Arts Library including the history of art, architecture, drama, design, and aligned area studies. The fellow will also work on a special-collections-focused project at the Yale Center for British Art Institutional Archives. Here is a list of past fellows and project titles.
The fellow will gain experience in reference services and library research education in the Haas Family Arts Library, Arts Library Special Collections, including shifts at service desks and participation in orientations, instruction sessions, and library workshops. Other activities will vary based on current Yale Library needs and the fellow’s interest and experience.
Kress Fellows are expected to pursue mutually agreed-upon projects resulting in tangible deliverables. Kress Fellows are also introduced to a broad spectrum of professional activities and may have the opportunity to assist with collection development activities, archival processing, or library-based exhibitions. Kress Fellows may participate in library committees and working groups at the Arts Library and the larger Yale Library system. Recent Fellows have taken the lead in running the Arts Library’s social media feeds in collaboration with members of the Arts Library Social Media Team. Fellows are encouraged to be professionally active and involved in the academic, scholarly, and professional community.
Qualifications:
Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited program for library and information science (degree must be completed before start date). Academic background in history of art, architecture, or related arts discipline. Excellent analytical, organizational, management, customer service, and interpersonal skills. Ability to effectively build partnerships and promote the benefits of change in an academic culture that often values ambiguity, diversity of opinion, and historic precedent. Ability to communicate effectively through both oral and written expression. Ability to work both independently and collegially in a demanding and rapidly changing environment.
Preferred Qualifications:
Advanced degree and/or relevant experience in history of art, architecture or related arts disciplines. Experience with developing digital information resources, archival processing, and/or working with rare materials. Teaching experience and/or customer service experience.
Fellowship Award and Benefits:
The Kress Fellow will be in residence at Yale for ten months and will receive an award of $40,000, prorated over the fellowship term. Health insurance will be provided.
Application Process:
Applicants should submit a current resume or CV, a brief cover letter/statement of interest that includes experience with special collection materials, and names and contact information for three professional references to Mar Gonzalez Palacios via e-mail at [email protected], before February 15, 2021. The statement of interest is expected to reflect a genuine commitment to art librarianship and an interest in the provision of information services to the visual arts community. There is no application form. Please be sure to include “2021/22 Kress Fellowship” in the e-mail subject and cover letter. A search committee of Yale librarians will review submissions and contact candidates who are selected for interviews. We encourage candidates to apply who embrace a multi-cultural, diverse, and inclusive workplace and who strive to incorporate those values into their work. Yale University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Yale values diversity in its faculty, staff, and students and strongly encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented minority groups.
Background Check Requirements:
All external candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle and credit checks based on the position description and job requirements. Internal candidates may be subject to a motor vehicle or credit check for this position based on the position description and job requirements. All offers are contingent on successful completion of the required background check. Please visit http://your.yale.edu/policies-procedures/policies/hr-100-employment-policies for additional information on the background check requirements and process.
The University and the Library:
Yale University offers exciting opportunities for achievement and growth in New Haven, Connecticut. Conveniently located between Boston and New York, New Haven is the creative capital of Connecticut with cultural resources that include three major museums, a critically-acclaimed repertory theater, state-of-the-art concert hall, and world-renowned schools of Architecture, Art, Drama, and Music.
The Yale University Library, as one of the world’s leading research libraries, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access and services for a rich and unique record of human thought and creativity. It fosters intellectual growth and supports the teaching and research missions of Yale University and scholarly communities worldwide. A distinctive strength is its rich spectrum of resources, including around 15 million volumes and information in all media, ranging from ancient papyri to early printed books to electronic databases. Housed in fifteen locations including the Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Bass Library, it employs a dynamic and diverse staff of approximately five hundred who offer innovative and flexible services to library readers. For additional information on the Yale University Library, please visit the Library’s web site at web.library.yale.edu.
The Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library:
The Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library specializes in visual arts, history of art, design, architecture, and drama, including arts-related special collections. The Arts Library contains approximately 150,000 onsite volumes including important reference works, monographs, exhibition catalogs, and print periodicals, and a growing complement of digital resources, including online periodicals, article indexes, and databases. It also includes Arts Library Special Collections, which features volumes and archival materials on book arts, fine printing, bookplates, typography, illustration, and design, as well as thesis projects from the Schools of Art, Architecture, and Drama. For more information, visit web.library.yale.edu/arts.
The Yale Center for British Art:
The Yale Center for British Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The Center’s collections of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, rare books, and manuscripts present the story of British art and culture, and its global contexts, from the fifteenth century to today. Together with the Reference Library and Institutional Archives, the collections are an exceptional resource for anyone interested in British art and its histories. For more information, visit https://britishart.yale.edu.