Draft Job Outline for DPLA Executive Director

One crucial marker of the DPLA’s transition from a planning initiative to a fully independent 501(c)(3) organization will be the hiring of a brilliant, driven, and visionary Executive Director. Governance consultant and Governance Workstream convener Maureen Sullivan has crafted a draft job outline for initial review. We heartily encourage nominations and suggestions for prospective Executive Directors via the form below. If you know someone who would be a perfect fit for this incredible opportunity–including yourself!–please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Please note that a final job description will be made available in the next month.

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Executive Director for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): DRAFT Job Outline

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) invites nominations and applications for its first Executive Director. This position offers a unique opportunity, in close collaboration  with the DPLA Board of Directors, to establish and develop the new DPLA organization. The DPLA seeks an innovative, collaborative and strategic individual who has the knowledge and abilities to provide exceptional leadership to ensure the establishment of this entrepreneurial enterprise.

The DPLA will make the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity available, free of charge, to all via a large-scale digital library. It will be an open, distributed network of comprehensive resources that will draw upon the nation’s resources and heritage from libraries, universities, archives, and museums in order to educate, inform, enlighten, and empower everyone in the current and future generations. It is a newly created private, nonprofit organization.

The Executive Director is responsible for the establishment of a dynamic, vibrant, and sustainable organization; effective administration of the organization; active and broad promotion of the DPLA to the general public and various organizations; acquisition of funds and grants to ensure the continued viability of the organization; development and promotion of strategic and innovative initiatives to ensure that current and future needs are met; and leadership of the various individuals, groups, and organizations in the larger community. The Executive Director is the spokesperson and champion of the DPLA.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will be a visionary leader who has demonstrated the ability to establish and lead a new, entrepreneurial organization. The Executive Director must bring intellectual energy and curiosity; strategic vision; and the ability to advance the vision and goals of the DPLA.  The successful candidate will have knowledge of the digital world; how it is changing the way knowledge and information are created, organized, disseminated, and preserved; and a deep understanding of the critical issues.

This position requires excellent interpersonal skills; strong financial management skills; the ability to lead innovation; the capacity to foster collaboration among a diverse set of individuals and groups; the ability to deal with paradox and to embrace disruptive change; the skills to facilitate innovation; the propensity to be forward thinking; and the ability to enlist in new endeavors.

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