Head, Arts & Humanities Liaison Team, University Libraries

Description

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), a Research 1 institution and the flagship institution for the state, is seeking an enthusiastic and highly motivated individual to lead the collaborative Arts and Humanities Liaison team at the University Libraries. The city of Knoxville is a hidden gem with a beautiful and walkable downtown, varied nightlife, active neighborhoods, and eclectic shopping and restaurants. UT is located within easy driving distances to Asheville, Nashville, Atlanta, and the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Head of Arts & Humanities Liaison Programs provides strategic direction and collaborative leadership for the University Libraries' liaison services, fostering excellence in research consultations, collection development, and instructional materials to support the arts and humanities disciplines. This position advances a dynamic, user-centered liaison model that cultivates high-value partnerships, builds meaningful relationships with students and faculty, and aligns library activities with the UTK Strategic Vision.

Reporting to the Associate Dean for Engagement, Learning, and Public Services, the Head serves as department lead for a core group of arts and humanities liaisons and coordinates with other liaison, technology services, reference services, collections, and instruction teams in a collaborative environment. The Head ensures seamless, user-centered service delivery by transcending organizational boundaries through cross-departmental structures, enabling users to access an integrated library experience.

The Head collaboratively defines and maintains departmental goals and standards that are responsive to user needs, leads ongoing assessment initiatives to demonstrate impact, and represents the department internally and externally. This position fosters an environment of innovation that promotes exploration and implementation of emerging approaches relevant to fields in the arts and humanities.

Specific Duties:

Strategic Leadership and Vision

• Collaborate with the Associate Dean and Libraries leadership to identify opportunities and develop and articulate a vision for arts and humanities liaison services in alignment with the UTK Strategic Vision
• Facilitate the co-development of clear program goals, role expectations, and success metrics with the liaison team to ensure shared understanding and accountability
• Champion innovation and exploration of emerging trends in liaison librarianship, including embedded models, AI-assisted research support, digital scholarship integration, new collection development trends, and evolving pedagogical approaches
• Advance the role and expertise of liaisons as essential partners across the research and learning lifecycles
• Advocate for library services and resources to campus leadership, faculty, students, and external stakeholders
• Coordinate cross-departmental initiatives by facilitating committees and task forces that bring together unit managers, liaisons, technology staff, collections specialists, instruction librarians and others to implement user-centered programs

Assessment and Continuous Improvement

• Foster a team culture of reflective practice, continuous improvement, and data-driven decision-making that leverages our relationships
• Establish a dynamic feedback system to ensure user input directly shapes library services, collections, and instructional materials
• Develop, pilot, and launch new services that directly address strategic campus needs and align with the Strategic Vision
• Establish a regular review process to assess service effectiveness, ensuring we are nimble by sunsetting legacy programs and reallocating resources to high-impact priorities
• Design and implement meaningful assessment strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of liaison programs and demonstrate impact on teaching, learning, and research outcomes

Partnership and Engagement

• Forge and sustain high-value strategic partnerships with relevant academic departments, centers, institutes, and campus units (e.g. Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts, Center for Global Engagement)
• Drive strategic outreach to cement the value and impact of liaison services, ensuring the arts and humanities community understands our role and views the library as an essential partner
• Serve as liaison to a subject department and provide support for liaison activities in other subject areas as needed.
• Participate in cross-departmental initiatives to implement user-centered engagement campaigns, assessment programs, instructional materials, and collections
• Collaborate with the Libraries Marketing and Communications Team to coordinate effective communication strategies
• Inform library colleagues about departmental services and programs so that other units can make effective referrals to arts and humanities expertise
• Facilitate regular departmental meetings, workshops, and professional development sessions

Supervision and Professional Development

• Supervise arts and humanities liaison librarians, including goal setting, performance evaluation, mentoring, promotion guidance, and professional development planning
• Equip liaisons to serve as the primary connectors for their communities, empowering them to confidently navigate users to the full spectrum of library services, solutions, and expertise
• Provide ongoing training and skill development opportunities for departmental liaisons in emerging competencies, including AI literacy, digital tools, pedagogy, data literacy, and scholarly communication to prepare for ongoing change
• Support cross-training initiatives within the unit that build shared knowledge and service delivery while recognizing and nurturing the unique disciplinary relationships each liaison develops
• Create opportunities for collaborative learning, knowledge sharing, and peer mentoring within the department
• Foster faculty growth and development through responsive mentorship and coaching

Other

• Engage in scholarly activity through publications, presentations, and other creative outlets to meet Libraries and University requirements for faculty
• Contribute to strategic planning activities in the Libraries
• Serve on library, university, and professional committees
• Participate actively in professional organizations and cooperative efforts with other information professionals

Qualifications

REQUIRED

• ALA-accredited master's degree at the time of appointment
• Demonstrated ability to meet criteria for tenure track appointment:
  
  
  • Criteria for Tenure Track Appointments.pdf
• Demonstrated experience as a liaison librarian
• Demonstrated experience with direct supervision
• Evidence of leadership skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Strong service orientation and commitment to user-centered practice
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a dynamic team environment across organizational boundaries
• Demonstrated experience delivering research consultation and reference services in support of faculty, students, and other members of the scholarly community.
• Ability to engage in research, publication, and service consonant with the University's and the Libraries' guidelines for tenure and promotion
• Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking, innovation, and adaptability in response to evolving user needs and technologies

PREFERRED

• Subject expertise in one or more arts or humanities-related discipline
• Demonstrated experience directly supervising professional librarians, either in faculty or exempt professional classifications.
• Experience assessing effectiveness of library services and programs using qualitative and quantitative methods
• Experience with budget management and resource allocation
• Demonstrated project management skills

ENVIRONMENT

The University of Tennessee Libraries are an integral part of the flagship campus of Tennessee's premier public research university. The University of Tennessee holds the Carnegie Foundation Research 1 designation, granted to doctoral universities with very high research activity. As a land-grant university and as Volunteers, serving our state and nation are key to our mission. UT enrolls approximately 40,421 students at its Knoxville campus. For more information about the people who comprise the UTK community, view resources on our Data Central website. The University culture is guided by adherence to core values that define the Volunteer spirit and include: seeking knowledge; leading with innovation and integrity; engaging locally and globally; and embracing responsible stewardship of resources.

The UT Libraries supports the teaching, research, and service mission of the university and enhances the academic experience of each student at the Knoxville campus-through outstanding print and electronic collections, reference and instructional services, and top-notch facilities and technological resources. The John C. Hodges Library in the heart of campus houses the majority of the UT Libraries' collections and many distinctive services. Two branch libraries offer specialized collections and services: the Webster C. Pendergrass Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine Library and the George F. DeVine Music Library.

The UT Libraries is a national leader in digital collections; in support of open access though our digital repository, TRACE; and through a rich history of designing innovative spaces and building key partnerships that enhance the teaching/learning enterprise. The UT Libraries is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, HathiTrust, the Library Publishing Coalition, LYRASIS, and the Center for Research Libraries. The UT Libraries collaborates actively at the state level with the other University of Tennessee System libraries as well as the libraries in the Tennessee Board of Regents system.

We believe that engaging with individuals from all backgrounds and perspectives fosters a vibrant learning environment that enhances critical thinking and intellectual growth. Our collective strengths make us stronger, and we are committed to promoting an atmosphere where all members of the University community feel welcome, can thrive, and can achieve success.

Additional information about this position and the UT community is available at Head, Arts & Humanities Liaison Team | Libraries

BENEFITS

Appointment at the rank of Assistant/Associate Professor with a minimum salary of $73,000. Faculty rank and status; twelve-month, tenure-track appointment. Library faculty must meet University requirements for promotion and tenure.

Excellent benefits include 24 annual leave days; choice of state retirement plan (TCRS) or the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) (VOYA, TIAA) with nonrefundable contributions paid for the employee by the University; optional group health and life insurance plans. Tuition remission is available for all university employees and partial undergraduate tuition remission is available to dependent children and spouses of UT employees. New faculty will receive start-up funding in the amount of $10,000 allocated over a three-year period; annual support for travel & professional development.

The Provost's Faculty Recruitment and Hiring page has information on academic support, personal support, and living in Knoxville.

Application Instructions

A satisfactory background check, receipt of sexual misconduct attestation form (and satisfactory disclosures) and official transcripts are required prior to hiring. In order to be considered for candidacy, you must submit, via Interfolio at a cover letter addressing the above qualifications, a current resume or CV, and the names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of three recent references. Questions may be directed to Susan Pritchard, Manager of Libraries HR, View email address on click.appcast.io. Review of applications will begin on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, and will continue until the position is filled.