JOB: Emerging Technologies and Immersive Learning Librarian (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

From the announcement:

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.