Job Description
The Warburg Institute, in the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, is now recruiting a new Librarian and Director of Collections.
The Warburg Institute and its Collections
The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. Research at the Institute is cross-disciplinary and global: it is concerned with the survival and transmission of cultural forms across national borders and from the earliest times to the present. It was founded in Hamburg as the private library of the pioneering scholar Aby Warburg (1866-1929), and exiled to London when the Nazis came to power in 1933. In 1944 it was given in trust to the University of London—and in 1994 became a founding member of the University’s School of Advanced Study, a cluster of internationally renowned institutes that form the UK’s national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities.
At the heart of the Institute is an open-stack library of some 360,000 volumes, structured according to Aby Warburg’s own unique scheme: it has been called ‘One of the 20 Libraries that Changed the World’ by the Open Education Database and ‘The World’s Weirdest Library’ by The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. The holdings constitute the world’s largest collection of its kind and include a large proportion of continental books and journals unavailable elsewhere in the UK. The Library, along with the Institute’s Photo Collection and Archive, serves as an engine for interdisciplinary research, postgraduate teaching and a prestigious events and publication programme.
The University of London
The University of London is one of the largest and most diverse higher education institutions in the world. With a mission to transform lives through knowledge, it delivers high quality academic programmes, brings benefits to society through its research in the humanities and social sciences, and leverages intellectual connections through public engagement.
The School of Advanced Study
The School of Advanced Study (SAS) is a nationally and internationally recognised centre of excellence in the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities. It comprises eight internationally renowned research institutes as well as centres in Digital Humanities and Public Engagement. It has four nationally and internationally recognised specialist research libraries that sit alongside the University’s central library in Senate House.
The Role
The Warburg Institute is seeking a new Librarian and Director of Collections at an important moment in its history. Work is now underway on the ‘Warburg Renaissance’ project that will transform the Institute’s historic home in Bloomsbury, improving spaces for people and collections and opening the Institute to new publics and partners. Construction began in July 2022 and when the project is finished in December 2023 there will not only be 30% more room for collections and a new centre for the storage, care and study of our special collections but also a public-facing ground-floor hub with the Institute’s first gallery for physical and digital exhibitions.
The successful candidate will take his/her place in a long line of scholar-librarians, stretching back to Fritz Saxl—who helped to organise Warburg’s original Library and became the Institute’s first Director. But there will be new opportunities and responsibilities in leading a unified collection with an emphasis on both increased access and physical/digital display. At the same time, the new Librarian will work with colleagues across the School of Advanced Study on the Senate House Library Transformation Project to ensure that our collections become more than the sum of their parts and help make Bloomsbury more visible and viable as one of the Western world’s greatest concentrations of libraries. Finally, the School is working closely with the AHRC and other funders to collaborate with colleagues across the so-called GLAM sector to host professional practice fellowships, deliver teaching and training and develop cutting-edge research projects.
In this role, you will be responsible for the overall leadership of the Warburg Institute’s Library, Photographic Collection and Archive; you will use the ‘Warburg Renaissance’ project to enhance public engagement with the collections; you will play an active role in the academic life of Institute and School (including research and teaching); and you will work with other librarians on the Senate House Library Transformation Project.
We are calling for applications from qualified candidates with ambitious ideas and a strong background in scholarship, librarianship, collections management and public engagement. Preference will be given to candidates with a grounding in Ancient, Medieval and/or Renaissance culture.
For a full role profile, please refer to the job description below.
Further information
To be considered for this opportunity, please submit your CV and Covering letter (by clicking ‘apply for job’ at the bottom of this page) before the closing date at midnight on 06 January 2023.
The University reserves the right to close the vacancy earlier than the published end date should it receive sufficient applications to warrant earlier shortlisting.
The University of London is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive working environment where we can all be ourselves and succeed. We particularly encourage applications from members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities as this group is currently under-represented in senior levels within the University. All appointments will be made on merit, based on the criteria identified in the job description.
Pursuing excellence in education and equal opportunities.