Project Curator for Women in Politics Collections - The Bancroft Library

The Bancroft Library is hiring a Curator for its Women in Politics collections to steward, develop, and interpret its holdings of manuscripts, archives, and other materials documenting the history of women in politics in the United States. The Curator, with the guidance of the Bancroft Director, will develop a collections strategy that identifies and scopes strategic priorities for Bancroft's collections related to women in politics from the 19th century onward. They will also engage in research into the library's existing holdings to identify collection strengths, gaps, and areas for growth. As part of planning for the future of this collecting area, the curator will identify and build relationships with donors, political organizations, cultural institutions, and other key stakeholders.

As part of their work to engage with existing collections, the curator will work collaboratively with colleagues in Bancroft Technical Services and Public Services to offer guidance and support in making existing collections accessible and usable, partner with instructors and library colleagues in teaching with the collections, engage in scholarly outreach, and participate in research services activities. The curator will also coordinate with the Oral History Center and curatorial colleagues to ensure cohesive stewardship of collections, and collaborate with partners across the UC Berkeley Library system and campus to foster engagement with the collections.

The Bancroft Library is committed to a collecting agenda that foregrounds diverse perspectives and historical voices, activating collections for multiple audiences. This position reports to The Bancroft Library Director and is part of a curatorial team that includes the University Archivist, the Theresa Salazar Curator of the Western Americana Collections, the Curator of Latin Americana Collections, the Curator of Pictorial Collections, and the Curator of Rare Books and Literary Manuscripts.

Summary of the Collections

The Bancroft Library holds extensive collections documenting the history of women in American politics, with particular strength in California and the western United States. Spanning the mid-nineteenth century to the present, the holdings include personal papers, organizational records, campaign materials, and feminist press publications covering suffrage, women's entry into elected and appointed office, party politics, community organizing, and the intersections of women's political work with civil rights, labor reform, environmental protection, peace, and reproductive rights. Collections are especially rich for the period from the early twentieth-century suffrage campaigns through the feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

Notable archival holdings include the papers of Senator Barbara Boxer, the Marjorie H. E. Benedict papers on Republican Party organizing, the Vera Smith Schultz papers on local officeholding in Marin County, and the papers of NOW California State Coordinator Sandra Farha, along with materials documenting suffrage activist Selina Solomons, Senate candidate Anne Henrietta Martin, the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, and Emeryville, and the Berkeley Women's Studies Movement Archive.

These holdings are complemented by the Library's Oral History Center, which holds oral histories of Bay Area female leaders, including but not limited to suffrage activists, early feminists, political fundraisers, organizers, and elected officials. The Center remains committed to expanding this body of work, offering rich opportunities for collaboration.

Job Responsibilities

- Collection Development and Stewardship:

• Work collaboratively with curatorial colleagues, Oral History Center staff, and partners across the UC Berkeley Library system to build and steward collections of lasting importance, relevance, and interconnectivity, identifying historic gaps and areas of strategic opportunity across the broad chronological and geographic scope of the library's holdings that document women in politics.
• Appraise and select materials for acquisition through donation or purchase across manuscripts, archives, visual materials, digital media, and all formats of print materials.
• Keep abreast of evolving legal and ethical considerations for provenance, intellectual property rights, privacy, and respectful stewardship of cultural heritage materials.
• Apply resource-sensitive collecting practices through the understanding and use of Total Cost of Stewardship tools and frameworks.

- Donor and Community Relations:

• Foster collaborative relationships with communities and individuals whose histories are documented in the collections, including activists, elected officials, political organizations, and social and civil rights movements and organizations.
• Partner with Bancroft Library leadership, the Friends of The Bancroft Library, and UC Berkeley Library Development Office to build and nurture philanthropic support.

- Technical Services Collaboration:

• Collaborate with Bancroft Technical Services on appraisal and accessioning, cataloging, archival processing, and appropriate levels of arrangement and description to ensure that collections documenting women's political engagement are discoverable and accessible to researchers.

- Research Services and User Support:

• Work with Bancroft Public Services colleagues to foster collection use by faculty, students, researchers, and the general public. Participate in the fellowship selection committee.
• Participate in public and research services activities, and ensure excellent service, friendly reception, and positive research interactions for all researchers.

- Teaching and Instruction:

• Draw on the library's extensive holdings documenting women's political history to prepare and lead instruction sessions, including material evaluation and selection, lesson plan development, and collaboration with faculty on assignments and learning outcomes.
• Promote inclusive teaching practices and accessibility in service and program development. Strengthen instructional collaborations across the university and integrate collections into new and existing classes and programs.

- Collection Interpretation:

• Highlight under-researched materials and interpret collections for diverse audiences through exhibitions, publications, lectures, tours, presentations, and conferences.
• Develop public programs and events in collaboration with Bancroft staff, the Oral History Center, library colleagues, and campus and community partners.

- Outreach and Communications:

• Contribute to outreach activities, blogs, social media, library publicity, and public events that raise awareness of the library's collections documenting women in politics and activism.

- Internal Collaboration:

• Function as part of a curatorial team sustaining collection development, scholarly and educational outreach, description, digitization, preservation, and research.
• Participate in library projects, committees, policy decisions, and strategic planning.

- External Liaison Work:

• Serve as liaison with other Library selectors, relevant library and academic departments, and other campus museums and collecting institutions, including the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, the Hearst Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Ethnic Studies Library.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the UC Berkeley Library system to identify opportunities for cross-collection research and programming related to women's political history.

- Professional Service:

• Represent the Bancroft and contribute to professional organizations at local, regional, national, and international levels, advancing the visibility of the library's collections and scholarly engagement.

UC Berkeley librarians are expected to participate in library-wide planning and governance and work effectively in a shared decision-making environment. Advancement is partially based upon professional contributions beyond the primary assignment; the successful candidate will show evidence or promise of such contributions to the library, campus, UC System, and profession.

The UC Berkeley Library is committed to supporting and encouraging respect and empathy and nurturing a culture where all employees thrive. For more information, please see the UC Berkeley Library Statement of Values.

UC professional librarians are academic appointees and are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, the University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This position is in the bargaining unit. Librarians are entitled to appropriate professional development leave, vacation leave, sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits.

ABOUT THE UC BERKELEY LIBRARY

The UC Berkeley Library is an internationally renowned research and teaching facility at one of the nation's premier public universities. A highly diverse and intellectually rich environment, Berkeley serves a campus community of 33,070 undergraduate students, 12,812 graduate students, and 1,525 faculty. The library comprises 20 campus libraries, including the Doe/Moffitt Libraries, The Bancroft Library, The C.V. Starr East Asian Library, and numerous subject specialty libraries. With a collection of more than 12 million volumes and a collections budget of over $15 million, the library offers extensive collections in all formats and robust services to connect users with the collections and build their research skills. Discover more about our collections and services at the UC Berkeley Library website.

The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the largest and most heavily used libraries of rare materials in the West. Its holdings include more than 800,000 volumes, 210 million manuscript items, 9 million photographs and other pictorial materials, 86,000 microforms, 9.4 million digital files, and 25,000 maps, as well as numerous other categories of unique material.

Collection strengths include rare books, literary manuscripts, pictorial collections, and the Western Americana and Latin Americana collections, spanning the colonial era to the present. The Bancroft Library is home to three research groups: the Oral History Center (formerly the Regional Oral History Office), the Mark Twain Papers, and the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri. The archival and rare book materials of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life are also part of the Bancroft holdings. The Bancroft Library is an active center of teaching and research. Supporting the programs of about 30 campus departments annually, it mounts a regular series of public exhibitions, roundtable lectures, and open houses.

UC Berkeley Library Website: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/

The Bancroft Library Website: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/bancroft

UC Berkeley Library Statement of Values: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/statement-of-values

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.

Unless stated otherwise, unambiguously, in the position description, this position does not include sponsorship of a new consular H-1B visa petition that would require payment of the $100,000 supplemental fee.

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