Collection Strategist

Collection Strategist Position Details Date: 5/27/26

Employment Type:

Full-time, 37.5 hours per week

Schedule:

Monday–Friday; occasional evening or weekend hours as required

Beginning Salary: $56,472 - $70,590 depending on qualifications.$70,590 is the midpoint of the pay grade. Starting at or above the midpoint is reserved for candidates who exceed the minimum qualifications and have significant relevant experience.

Position Description As Collection Strategist, you'll lead the development, evaluation, and continuous improvement of our collections across print, digital, and emerging formats. You'll work closely with our selectors, managers, and leadership to set priorities, steward our collections budget, and build staff expertise. You'll directly manage adult fiction (a fantastic collection, if we do say so ourselves) and partner with selectors across departments on everything else.

But here's the thing: this is a brand-new position, and we’re looking for the person who will help us shape it. We know what we want to achieve, and we're committed to getting there, but we're not prescriptive about how. You'll have time to learn our collection, understand our community, and build trust before we expect you to drive change. We want you to arrive with curiosity, not conclusions.

If you're the kind of library professional who gets genuinely excited about rethinking how collections work, and who knows how to bring people along on that journey, we'd love to meet you.

You'll Be Doing Things Like...Setting collection strategy and priorities in collaboration with staff and leadership

Partnering with selectors to develop, maintain, and improve collections across all departments

Digging into data: analyzing usage stats, circulation trends, community demographics to turn it into actionable direction

Assessing collection development processes and working with staff and leadership to implement improvements

Training and supporting selectors on best practices, tools, and emerging trends

Managing the collections budget alongside Library leadership

Leading and supporting cross-departmental projects

Providing reference and reader's advisory services when needed (yes, you'll still get to talk to patrons about books)
Read the Full

Job Description Helen Plum Library Culture Our culture is built around three things: discovering new ideas, connecting across departments, and growing together. That means we share what we know, learn from each other, and genuinely celebrate wins, both big and small. Every voice matters here, every role matters here, and we work hard to make sure people feel that.

This position will sit right at the heart of that culture. You'll be collaborating across departments, welcoming questions as much as answers, and helping us build something we're all proud of and serves our community. If that sounds like your kind of place, we think you'll fit right in.

Benefits Participation in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) and optional 457b plan

Paid Vacation, Sick Time, Personal Time, and Holidays Enrollment in Medical, Dental, and Basic Life/AD&D Insurance Coverage Paid Parental Leave Tuition Reimbursement The must-haves:

MLS from an ALA-accredited university

At least five years of professional collection development experience, including managing funds

Comfort working with data and using it to make and support decisions

Strong communication skills with staff, leadership, and the public alike

The things that will make you stand out:

Experience with collection assessment tools like Library IQ Familiarity with digital platforms like Overdrive/Libby and Hoopla Experience developing collections for both youth and adult audiencesA track record of training or mentoring staff

Experience leading cross-departmental teams

The harder-to-quantify stuff that matters just as much:

You're genuinely excited about change, not just tolerant of itYou know how to lead people through uncertainty without leaving them behind

You're willing to question assumptions, including your ownYou can hold a strategic vision and stay humble enough to keep learning

You think libraries are pretty great and you want to make ours even better
#J-18808-Ljbffr