The Oregon Historical Society seeks a visionary library and archive professional with a passion for providing leadership for collections stewardship, broad public access to library collections and digital resources, building visibility and resources, cultivating relationships, and community engagement for the position of Library Director. The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker with a proven record for collections management, project planning, outreach, fundraising, developing and managing a complex budget, and directing staff and library operations, as well as a solid grounding in Pacific Northwest and/or US history.

The Library Director will lead an experienced and dedicated team of professional librarians, archivists, and public historians to drive mission-related projects and priorities supported by OHS’s strategic plan, including three special projects currently underway and a fourth in the final planning stages:

• Citizen(s) Yasui, a two-year CLIR grant-funded collaborative digitization project with Densho will broaden access to the library’s extensive holdings originating from the Yasui family of Hood River, Oregon.
• Portland Digital History addition to the Oregon History Project website will provide an online public resource on the people, places, and events that inform the history of Portland, Oregon based on  the unique collections of OHS’s research library and museum.
• Architecture, engineering, and design collections project to bring the library’s flagship design archive to a high standard of collections care and access.
• Improvements to library collections storage at OHS’s offsite storage facility envisioned for the successfully completed The Next 125 capital campaign.

OHS’s research library is committed to providing broad access to its collections for teaching, learning, and research, both onsite in our beautifully renovated downtown Portland library and online through robust digital collections and digital history websites. The library holds the largest collection of archival and published materials relating to the history of Oregon, including the historical regions of Oregon Country and Oregon Territory. Our collections serve as a foundation for scholars, teachers, students, and the public to research and reflect on our state and regional history. The resources and staff of the OHS Research Library play a significant role in fulfilling OHS’s mission to “preserve our state's history and make it accessible to everyone in ways that advance knowledge and inspire curiosity about all the people, places, and events that have shaped Oregon.”

The Oregon Historical Society is a private non-profit organization chartered in 1898 as the state’s historical society. OHS is dedicated to making Oregon’s long, rich history visible and accessible to all. Our research library, museum, digital platforms, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and rich as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.

Annual salary: $112,000-125,000

Please view the full job post and apply online: https://recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/Jobs/Details/3083543

Direct inquiries to human.resources@ohs.org

I’m retiring after many rewarding years at OHS and will leave behind an extraordinary team positioned to take OHS’s research library to the next level. If you know of any excellent candidates for this position, please encourage them to apply!

Shawna Gandy

Library Director

she/her/hers pronouns

Oregon Historical Society

1200 SW Park Ave. Portland, OR 97205

p: 503.306.5265   ohs.org