Acquisitions Advisor, on retainer, Private Family Library

Code4lib; Phoenix (AZ); Hybrid; USD 50,000 - 90,000; Part time

Job summary

Code4lib seeks an Acquisitions Advisor to guide a private family library in Phoenix, focusing on rare books, condition, and fair valuation. You’ll manage quarterly in-person library work and remote oversight, ensuring thoughtful, well-supported purchases.

You will train an Assistant on-site to learn buying, condition, and pricing, while leveraging AI for desk tasks and error correction; two-year retainer with a defined budget.

Qualifications

• Proven expertise in rare books and cataloguing.
• Excellent judgment for buying at auction and assessing condition.
• Strong familiarity with Catholic tradition and copy assessment.

Responsibilities

• Collate condition, comps, and auction calendars for major purchases.
• Conduct dealer conversations and oversee bidding and lot evaluation.
• Teach the on-site Assistant buying, condition, and pricing skills; guide AI desk work.

Skills

Rare books expertise

Auction research

Book appraisal

Catholic tradition knowledge

Job description

Acquisitions Advisor, on retainer, Private Family Library

You’ve held the strike price at auction and caught the made-up copy the catalogue missed. You don’t want another institution, and you may not want to move. Good. Neither is required.

A family in the Metro Phoenix area is building a serious private library, read through rather than displayed, one generation to the next. What we need from you is the eye on the rare books and the judgment to buy them well. The owner is the judge on every expensive purchase and wants to be sold properly.

You’ve read these books, not just handled them, and you know the Catholic tradition well enough to judge the copy, whether or not you share it.

A couple of days a quarter at the library in Arizona, the fairs, the rest from wherever you are: collation, condition, comps, the auction calendars and the bidding, the dealer conversations, and the second eye before any major purchase. Monthly retainer discussed on the first call, two-year term, real budget.

You also teach: the Assistant on-site learns buying, condition and pricing from you until they trust their own eye. AI does the desk work, and you tell it where it’s wrong.

Description

You’ve held the strike price at auction and caught the made-up copy the catalogue missed. You don’t want another institution, and you may not want to move. Good. Neither is required.

A family in the Metro Phoenix area is building a serious private library, read through rather than displayed, one generation to the next. What we need from you is the eye on the rare books and the judgment to buy them well. The owner is the judge on every expensive purchase and wants to be sold properly.

You’ve read these books, not just handled them, and you know the Catholic tradition well enough to judge the copy, whether or not you share it.

A couple of days a quarter at the library in Arizona, the fairs, the rest from wherever you are: collation, condition, comps, the auction calendars and the bidding, the dealer conversations, and the second eye before any major purchase. Monthly retainer discussed on the first call, two-year term, real budget.

You also teach: the Assistant on-site learns buying, condition and pricing from you until they trust their own eye. AI does the desk work, and you tell it where it’s wrong.