Librarian, Private Family Library

Code4lib; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits

Bonus

Relocation considered

Job summary

Code4lib in Phoenix, AZ seeks a dedicated librarian/cataloguer to build and manage a serious private library. You will work on-site with the owner to catalog ~12,000 books, selecting and acquiring rare volumes with dealers. A small staff structure requires hands-on involvement and long-term commitment.

Experience handling rare books in special collections or shops is ideal. You’ll help establish systems for a future-proof library in a family setting, with benefits, bonus, and relocation

Qualifications

• Experience shelving and cataloguing rare books.
• Ability to build systems for a private library.
• Comfort working in a small team with long commitment.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement cataloging workflows for a private library.
• Collaborate with dealers and owner to acquire and evaluate books.
• Maintain and improve library systems and processes.

Skills

Rare books handling

Cataloguing

On-site collaboration

Tools

Catalog/database systems

Job description

Description

You’ve catalogued other people’s libraries long enough. Come build one.

A family in the Metro Phoenix area is building a serious private library: room for about 12,000 books, a thousand so far, the rest still to find. A Great Books formation library, the Catholic intellectual tradition its spine, the American founding its frame, the Southwest alongside, read through by the family one generation to the next, with a children’s on-ramp that climbs from a bottom shelf to a ladder. The systems don’t exist yet; you’ll build them with the owner.

Most days it’s you, the books, the dealers and the owner. If that sounds like heaven, read on.

You’d rather find the right copy than be handed it. You’ve read these books, not just catalogued them, and you can shelve the Catholic tradition whether or not you share it. You also know what makes a physical book great: you’ve handled rare books in a special collection, a shop or an auction house, and you want to learn to buy them well. AI does the register work and you’re curious about it; you hold the book.

Small staff, long commitment. Full-time, on-site, benefits, bonus, relocation considered.