Faculty Positions: Seeking Geeks with Social Skills

img_0857Today we’re announcing a search for four new faculty positions at the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science (posts to follow). We are looking for three tenure track faculty and one instructor to be part of a growing program. The searches represent a continued commitment to librarianship and the School of Library and Information Science’s well-deserved reputation in youth services, school libraries, and doctoral study. However, these searches also represent a new strategy to ensure the values of librarianship (openness, learning, intellectual freedom & security, and intellectual honesty) spread throughout society.

We are looking to grow our undergraduate program in information science. In essence we are actively seeking geeks with social skills-in this case geeks being passionate people and social being social science. The future of librarianship depends not only in preparing leaders within libraries, but also in preparing the CIOs, mayors, principals, and trustees that will hire/manage/support tomorrow’s librarians. This means preparing, through undergraduate degrees and minors, information professionals that can sit at the intersection of technology, strategy, and people. These information scientists will bring a set of skills to this crucial intersection, as well as bringing values, ethics, and a mission based on improving society.

We are looking for diverse perspectives that represent the skills our students need, and the communities these future alumni will serve. Rather than seeking to solely train future librarians, we want to produce leaders and visionaries that will work with librarians and technologists, bankers and NGOs, entrepreneurs and activists to make real positive change in our communities.

Over the next several weeks and months, I will be announcing forums where the faculty, staff, and students of the University of South Carolina will be forging a school of thought around knowledge and impact. We are beginning a field-wide conversation on what comes after library schools and information schools: knowledge schools focused on impact and improving society.

All are invited to participate in this conversation, but right now I am looking for scholars (and yes, geeks of the highest order) that can help forge this new school of thought. You will be joining a dedicated corps of scholars, staff, and students with a history of seeking to change the world – through reading and data science; through maker spaces and image archives; through metadata and intellectual property; through graphic novels and knowledge management – not simply document it. You will be part of a growing program, at a growing university dedicated to crafting higher education for today and tomorrow.

[Be aware it may take the official university a couple of days to post the job and application information]