Associate Director for Collections and Operations - School of Law

Salary range:
The UC academic salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and step at appointment. See the following table for the salary scale for this position: https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2025-26/policy-covered-july-2025-scales/t27.pdf. A reasonable full-time salary estimate for this position is $128,700 - $265,000.

Percent time:
100%

Anticipated start:
Spring 2026

The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law) is one of the nation's premier law schools, located at one of the world's great universities. The Law Library holds one of the largest law collections in the world, housing an extensive collection of Anglo-American, international, foreign, and comparative law. The Law Library serves a faculty of more than 100, including tenured and tenure-track, clinical, adjunct, and visiting professors and lecturers; more than 1000 J.D. students; 250 LL.M. students; 150 Professional Track LL.M. students in the summer; graduate students from the School of Jurisprudence and Social Policy; more than 100 visiting scholars each year; as well as researchers from other scholarly and legal communities. These include members of the University of California community, private attorneys, and members of the general public. Berkeley Law is the home of the prestigious Robbins Collection, which specializes in religious and civil law, and includes rare books and manuscripts. The Law School has a wide variety of research centers, clinics, and student-initiated projects.

Position Overview

The UC Berkeley School of Law Library seeks an Associate Director for Collections and Operations to play a key leadership role in ensuring seamless and efficient access to Law Library services and resources that support the academic and research needs of students, faculty, and the wider campus scholarly community. Reporting to the Associate Dean of the Law Library, the Associate Director for Collections and Operations is a member of the Law Library's senior management team, contributing to strategic planning and decision-making. This position oversees the administration of the Collections Department (acquisitions, cataloging, collections), ensuring efficient and effective operations. Additionally, this role involves leadership in Law Library operations, budget management, space planning, and staff supervision. The Associate Director acts as a resource for Law Library staff, offering guidance and fostering a collaborative work environment. This position also leads department meetings and facilitates communication across Law Library teams to enhance coordination and workflow.

Departmental Leadership and Management

• Serves as a key member of the Law Library's management team, contributing to strategic planning and decision-making.
• Oversees the administration of the Law Library's Collection Services Department, ensuring efficient and effective operations.
• Plans, coordinates, manages, and evaluates the department's services, including acquisitions, licensing, cataloging, processing, and updating of Law Library materials.
• Provides leadership in Law Library operations, including budget management and space planning.
• Recruits, hires, and supervises all department librarians, library staff, and library assistants.
• Serves as a resource for staff, offering guidance and fostering a collaborative work environment.
• Leads department meetings and facilitates communication across Law Library teams to enhance coordination and workflow.

Collection Development and Resource Management

• Directs the Law Library's collaborative collection building, overseeing all aspects of collection development, acquisitions, licensing, cataloging, and preservation.
• Ensures collection strategies align with institutional goals and evolving legal research and scholarship needs.
• Establishes, maintains relationships, and negotiates effectively with vendors and electronic service providers, setting resource performance expectations and ensuring appropriate contract terms.
• Ensures all license agreements comply with University of California requirements and standards.
• Responsible for the management and oversight of the Law Library's online catalog, ensuring accurate description, accessibility, and regular updates of bibliographic records.

Library Operations, Budget Administration, and Space Planning

• In collaboration with the Associate Dean of the Law Library, manages the Law Library's operational budget, ensuring financial sustainability and effective allocation of resources.
• Manages the Law Library's collections budget, negotiating effectively with publishers and vendors to ensure financial sustainability and effective allocation of resources, while maintaining a robust research collection.
• Oversees the strategic use of Law Library spaces, ensuring they meet the needs of staff, students, faculty, and researchers, in coordination with the Associate Dean of the Law Library, and the Associate Director for Public Services and Administration.

Emerging Technologies

• Advises on metadata creation, management, and optimization to enhance the discoverability of Law Library resources.
• Stays informed on emerging technologies, including Linked Data and BIBFRAME, assessing their applicability to library operations and services.
• Evaluates new library technologies and systems, determining when and how to integrate them into existing workflows.
• Leads initiatives to adapt collection services and technical processes to evolving industry standards and digital transformation.
• Provides guidance on the use of metadata standards and best practices to support cataloging, discovery, and interoperability.

Reporting and Cross-Departmental Coordination

• Develops reports and messaging to communicate the Law Library's contributions and budgetary needs.
• Manages the recording and reporting of collection-related statistics to support data-driven decision-making.
• Coordinates effectively with Access Services, Reference, Collection Services, and Scholarly Communications Services to ensure seamless Law Library functions and resource accessibility.
• Promotes, facilitates, and encourages cross-departmental coordination and collaboration through project-based initiatives within the Law Library.
• Change Management and Innovation
• Collaborates with individuals in and out of the Law Library to enhance the vision for the Law Library's collection and operations.
• Stays informed about changes in collection services and library operations, recommending innovations that improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Updates Law Library leadership on significant service developments, both locally and nationally, that impact law libraries and collections

Participation in Research and Instruction

• Has the opportunity to provide legal research instruction in law school classes and other educational settings, as appropriate.
• Supports the development and maintenance of collection-related content on Law Library websites.

Working Conditions

• This is a full-time, on-site position with occasional evening or weekend hours to support library operations.
• Where feasible, this position may be able to work four days onsite and one day remotely.
• The role may involve lifting, shelving, and moving library materials
• Work is performed with regular interruptions and shifting priorities

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

Advanced degree (JD, MA, PhD, or equivalent international degree)

Additional qualifications (required at time of start)

• Minimum five years of experience in law or academic research library.
• Minimum three years experience with library collections and collection development
• Minimum three years of supervisory experience.

Preferred qualifications

• Degree in library science from an ALA-accredited institution
• Demonstrated experience with law library collections
• Demonstrated experience with statistics, metrics, and assessment techniques that help the Law Library and the campus achieve goals.
• Able to independently advance a project or function, collaborate as a team player, and interact successfully with all levels of staff within and outside the Law Library to ensure necessary cross-departmental collaboration and decision making.
• Strong analytical and conceptual abilities to anticipate and solve problems and initiate actions for effective management of a complex, multi-functional library
• Demonstrated experience in managing programs and or projects within a complex organization.
• Extensive knowledge of legal bibliography and legal research techniques in multiple formats necessary to inform decisions for library collections and research support in an academic law library.
• Experience in administrative operations creating ongoing operational efficiencies.
• Experience working in or managing in a collective bargaining environment
• Strong commitment to effective management practices, staff development and morale
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills needed to ensure clear policies and procedures and strong cross-departmental communication and collaboration, and for effective written reports, such as required institutional reports, annual operations reports, and mandatory compliance reports.

• 3 required (contact information only)

Apply link:
https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04921

UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our public mission of research, teaching, and service, consistent with UC Regents Policy 4400 and University of California Academic Personnel policy (APM 210 1-d). These values are embedded in our Principles of Community, which reflect our passion for critical inquiry, debate, discovery and innovation, and our deep commitment to contributing to a better world. Every member of the UC Berkeley community has a role in sustaining a safe, caring and humane environment in which these values can thrive.

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status.

For more information, please refer to the University of California's Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment Policy and the University of California's Anti-Discrimination Policy.

In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality prior to submitting their letter.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct.

• "Misconduct" means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant's previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment or discrimination, as defined by the employer.
• UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy
• UC Anti-Discrimination Policy
• APM - 035: Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment

Berkeley, CA