2024/25 Kress Fellowship in Art Librarianship at Yale University
Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Fixed Duration Position:  12 months from date of hire; non-renewable
Expected Start Date:  July 1, 2024

Fellowship Award: $55,000

 

INVITATION TO APPLY

Are you preparing to graduate or are you a recent library school graduate who wants to pursue a career in art librarianship, possibly including special collections and archives? If so, we invite you to apply for the 2023/24 Kress Fellowship in Art Librarianship at Yale University. Candidates may include coursework, schoolwork, and internships to meet the qualifications for this fellowship. This opportunity is made possible through the generosity of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, which seeks to ensure the growth of the field by promoting the advancement of new professionals.

As the Kress Fellow, in this 12-month appointment you will develop a project and participate in activities that are:

• aligned with your professional interests
• build on your prior experience
• are aligned with the library’s needs and priorities

Centered at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, the fellowship also includes one day/week at the Yale Center for British Art, in its Archives. Multiple areas of interest can be explored, including public services, community outreach and instruction, collection development, exhibitions, archives, and cataloging. You will develop a main project at Haas that will result in tangible deliverables and your overall activities will draw on the subject areas that are primarily served by the Haas Arts Library including the history of art, architecture, drama, design, and aligned area studies. Here is a list of past fellows and project titles.

You will also participate in Haas Arts Library committees and working groups and may interact with other Yale Library committees and groups. As an example, recent Fellows helped lead the Arts Library’s social media with members of the Arts Library Social Media Team. You will be encouraged, supported, and mentored in professional development activities and there will be opportunities for involvement in the wider Yale academic, scholarly, and professional community. 

ABOUT THE HAAS FAMILY ARTS LIBRARY

The Haas Family Arts Library at Yale serves an array of academic and museum programs, architects, artists, and scholars and is open to the public. Kress Fellows have opportunities to interact with faculty, staff and students in the Schools of Architecture, Art, and Drama; Department of the History of Art; and two university art museums, the Yale Center for British Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. They also have opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from throughout the Yale University Library, including the Sterling Memorial Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The rich professional and scholarly resources of New York City and Boston's art libraries and museums are within two hours' travel, providing further opportunities for professional growth and professional contact with colleagues in the region.

QUALIFICATIONS

Successful candidates will have:

• a master’s degree from an ALA-accredited program for library and information science (degree must be completed before the start date of July 1, 2024 but no earlier than January 1, 2023)
• an academic background in art, the history of art, architecture, design, or a related visual arts or design discipline
• an active interest in art/architecture/design librarianship
• effective communication skills
• an ability to work effectively both independently and collaboratively as part of a team comprised of different people and roles
• initiative, project management skills, and the ability to multi-task with various deadlines
• a growth mindset and an ability to learn from setbacks

If you are excited about this fellowship opportunity and you have the required degrees, but you aren’t sure if your experience aligns perfectly with every other qualification in the description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

FELLOWSHIP AWARD AND BENEFITS

The Kress Fellow will be in residence at Yale for twelve months and will receive an award of $55,000, prorated over the fellowship term. Professional development/travel funding will be provided. Health insurance will also be provided.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Submit a current resume or CV, a brief cover letter/statement of interest that explains why you are interested in this fellowship opportunity, and the names and contact information of three professional references before the end of the day February 18, 2024. Review of applications will begin that week. The statement of interest is expected to reflect a genuine commitment to art librarianship and an interest in the provision of information services to the visual arts/architecture/design community. A search committee of Yale librarians will review submissions and contact candidates who are selected for interviews. 

Application Form

We encourage candidates to apply who embrace a multi-cultural, diverse, and inclusive workplace and who strive to incorporate those values into their work.

Yale University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Yale values diversity in its faculty, staff, and students and strongly encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIREMENTS

All external candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle and credit checks based on the position description and job requirements. Internal candidates may be subject to a motor vehicle or credit check for this position based on the position description and job requirements. All offers are contingent on successful completion of the required background check.

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE LIBRARY

Yale University offers exciting opportunities for achievement and growth in New Haven, Connecticut. Conveniently located between Boston and New York, New Haven is the creative capital of Connecticut with cultural resources that include three major museums, a critically acclaimed repertory theater, state-of-the-art concert hall, and world-renowned schools of Architecture, Art, Drama, and Music.

The Yale University Library, as one of the world's leading research libraries, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access and services for a rich and unique record of human thought and creativity. It fosters intellectual growth and supports the teaching and research missions of Yale University and scholarly communities worldwide. A distinctive strength is its rich spectrum of resources, including around 15 million volumes and information in all media, ranging from ancient papyri to early printed books to electronic databases. Housed in fifteen locations including the Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Bass Library, it employs a dynamic and diverse staff of approximately five hundred who offer innovative and flexible services to library readers. For additional information on the Yale University Library, please visit the Library's web site at web.library.yale.edu.

THE ROBERT B. HAAS FAMILY ARTS LIBRARY
The Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library specializes in visual arts, history of art, design, architecture, and drama, and includes arts-related special collections. The Arts Library is comprised of nearly 500,000 volumes, with 150,000 volumes onsite including important reference works, monographs, exhibition catalogs, and print periodicals, that complement digital resources such as e-journals, e-books, and databases. Arts Library Special Collections features volumes and archival materials on book arts, fine printing, bookplates, typography, illustration, architecture, and graphic design, as well as thesis projects from the Schools of Art and Drama. For more information, visit our website at web.library.yale.edu/arts.

THE YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART
The Yale Center for British Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The YCBA’s collections of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, rare books, and manuscripts present the story of British art and culture, and its global contexts, from the fifteenth century to today. Together with the Reference Library and Archives, the collections are an exceptional resource for anyone interested in British art and its histories. For more information, please visit the YCBA website at https://britishart.yale.edu.