East Asian Library Operations Supervisor

The East Asian Library (EAL) at Princeton University is seeking a diligent, motivated, and independent individual to be the Library Operations Supervisor of its Public Services unit.

The East Asian Library is a unique library at Princeton due to its extensive and specialized collections, space limitations, and independent interlibrary loan and technical services operations. It is one of the most famous collections of its kind in the United States, serving not only faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students at Princeton on all kinds of research on China, Japan, and Korea but also, visiting scholars from across the globe.

The Operations Supervisor is fully responsible for all daily branch operations and functions of the East Asian Library, including circulation, shelving, stack maintenance, shifting, and physical space presentation, management, and security.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage branch library operations, including Course Reserves, Document Delivery, Borrow Direct, Interlibrary Loan (ILL), and the transfer of materials to off-site storage (ReCAP).
• Hire, train, and supervise two unionized staff positions (including writing evaluations and maintaining payroll) and 20+ students to ensure coverage of essential back-of-house and public service functions.
• Facilitate use of rare and special collections held on-site and off-site for library patrons.
• Perform data driven analysis to determine future space and material needs.
• Coordinate with Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Serials staff within the EAL to streamline workflows and ensure efficient circulation of materials across departments.
• Maintain and update EAL MARC records.
• Establish priorities and design workflows for both ongoing operations and special projects.
• Develop, interpret, and enforce library policies and procedures.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for patrons, including faculty, students, and external visitors, with creativity and tact.
• Participate in outreach initiatives and programs.
• Apply and adapt policies related to patron services, carrel assignments, and patron records.
• Address access and general use inquiries while referring advanced research questions to librarians.
• Oversee and continuously update staff schedules, procedural manuals, and training programs.
• Fostering a collaborative and productive work environment and motivating and guiding staff to achieve performance goals.
• Build and maintain strong cross-departmental relationships through comprehensive understanding of the library policies, procedures and interdepartmental operations.
• Participate in university library committees and working groups
• Coordinate with external departments, including Frist Campus Center management and public safety.

Essential

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• At least 5 years of practical work with at least 1 year of supervisory experience including training off staff
• At least one year of academic, research, or corporate library work and ability to learn quickly library policies and procedures
• Strong organizational and excellent service-oriented interpersonal skills
• Experience in managing, training and motivating staff and/or students
• Excellent ability to communicate in English, both orally and in writing
• Ability to make decisions and work independently with minimal supervision, as well as working well as a team leader
• Reliability, good judgement, leadership, and resourceful problem-solving skills
• Ability to prioritize workflows and respond creatively to changing circumstances
• Intermediate computer skills (Microsoft Office), and the demonstrated ability to learn new computer programs as needed
• Aptitude for working with bibliographic citations in several languages with reading knowledge of at least one East Asian…