Job Description

The St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is seeking an outstanding emerging scholar for a full-time, donor-funded, term position Early Career Library Fellow. The position provides an invaluable professional development opportunity to a scholar interested in pursuing a library career. The selected fellow will develop practical skills in all areas of library and archival practice including collections cataloguing, digitization, management and planning, and public service, while participating fully in the intellectual life of the library. The fellow will work alongside an ensemble of dedicated professionals to perform duties related to the physical care, documentation, and preservation of archival and manuscript collections and to advance digital access to the vast holdings of this 178-year-old rare book and special collections library.  

The St. Louis Mercantile Library holds historic archival, rare book and manuscript collections in the areas of transnational as well as local Missouri and regional histories, Native Americana, African Americana, westward expansion, American business history, exemplary transportation holdings in river and rail history, as well as a growing collection of Missouri and American art and artists’ archives. The Mercantile’s collections overall form a prestigious historical research center for a wide variety of users, and is a bibliographical laboratory for deep historical research and investigation. The Mercantile Library is affiliated with the University of Missouri – St. Louis, a distinguished public land-grant university that is part of the University of Missouri system and is eastern Missouri’s premier public research university. Its 470-acre north St. Louis County campus is home to one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse student bodies in Missouri, comprised of nearly 16,000 students from 49 states and over 70 countries.  

Responsibilities of this position include, under the supervision of curatorial and cataloging staff; 

• Accessioning, processing, and cataloging new acquisitions and backlog holdings. 

• Participating in the facilitation of scholarly access to, and ensuring long-term preservation of, the special collections. 

• Collaborating with colleagues to enhance discovery of Library holdings through online access and digitization projects. 

• Overseeing the care and handling of special collections material while being digitized. 

• Preparing online and print finding aids, catalogs, or other resources to provide access to collections in accordance with the standards and best practices of the profession. 

• Providing administrative support related to collections use, storage, and research. 

• Participating in special events and programs which include evenings and weekends. 

• Additional duties as necessary and required. 

• Adherence to the Collected Rules and Regulations of the University of Missouri System. 

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