Subject Librarianship Fellow

The Hanna Holborn Gray Graduate Student Fellowship in Subject Librarianship

Division/Department: Research and Learning Division, University of Chicago Library

Reports to: Bibliographer for Religion, Philosophy, & Jewish Studies

General Summary:

This fellowship matches graduate students with the subject specialist in their area of study to introduce the student to the work of a subject librarian/liaison. The graduate student would partner with the subject specialist to design a project that combines the student’s subject expertise with the librarian’s expertise in collection development and liaison services. For instance, a project could center on identifying materials to purchase in underrepresented areas or languages, designing an outreach program to a department, fielding reference questions, designing an instruction session, or some combination of these.

This fellowship provides valuable experience to the graduate student, complementary to traditional skills taught in graduate school. Depending on the project, the student would gain experience and skills in collaboration, information management and dissemination, outreach, problem solving, and decision making. These are highly marketable skills in “alt-ac” careers and the corporate sector. The fellowship serves also to introduce the student to the work of a subject specialist as a potential career path and positions them to compete for such a position. In addition, they would learn about the service side of academia, which would better prepare them for work in the broader non-profit sector.

Specific activities will vary according to fellow’s skills and interests, but may include:

• Developing instructional sessions, library guides or other online learning tools for specialized library subject resources
• Answering reference questions and/or assisting in research consultations
• Researching potential purchases and making purchase recommendations for library resources
• Designing an outreach program
• Designing and creating a physical and/or digital library exhibit
• Exploring and evaluating new online resources and developing recommendations for acquisition of such resources

Qualifications:

• Enrolled in the UChicago Divinity School graduate program and in good academic standing during the period of the fellowship
• Experience using print and digital collections for scholarly research
• Basic familiarity with online databases and tools related to Religious Studies.
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Demonstrated ability in outreach and/or instruction
• Experience with web design software desired, but not required. [Ideally, the fellow would be able to help promote Omeka and/or create web exhibits