Director of the Africana, Asian American, Chicano, & Native American (AAACNA) Studies Center

Job Description:

Director of the Africana, Asian American, Chicano, & Native American (AAACNA) Studies Center

Description

Position Rank and Title: Tenured Librarian, and Director of the Africana, Asian American, Chicano, & Native American (AAACNA) Studies Center

School/Department Name: University Library

Compensation:

Commensurate with qualifications, experience, and rank as established by the CSU Salary Schedule . Anticipated hiring annual salary range: $112,000 - $118,000 for Associate Librarian, and $125,000 - $135,000 for Full Librarian.

Faculty employee benefits are very competitive for the higher education sector. See the CSU Employee Benefits Summary for details about the CSU’s excellent benefits package.

Target Start Date: February 2027

Application Deadline: November 12, 2026 (Applications accepted until filled or closed)

Position Description

The SJSU King Library at San José State University is pleased to announce a search for the Director of the Africana, Asian American, Chicano, & Native American (AAACNA) Studies Center. The position is for a full-time, tenured Associate or Full Librarian beginning in February 2027. Faculty duties will be 0.6 FTE or 60% Directorship and 0.4 FTE or 40% Liaison Librarian. The Director normally serves for a renewable, four-year term.

The AAACNA Studies Center directorship offers a distinctive opportunity to provide strategic leadership and shape the Center’s high impact programs, initiatives and collections.

The AAACNA Studies Center is a unique, 6,000-square-foot academic and cultural hub located on the fifth floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at SJSU. Born out of decades of student advocacy and campus equity movements, the Center serves as an open-stack research and community space dedicated to amplifying the histories, literature, and voices of historically underrepresented communities. What makes AAACNA truly distinct is its rare structural and community-driven model: it physically and academically integrates four distinct ethnic studies collections - Africana, Asian American, Chicano, Native American, and comparative Ethnic Studies-under one roof to foster cross-cultural dialogue, interdisciplinary research, and belonging.

Reporting to the Associate Dean for Student and Faculty Engagement, the AAACNA Director’s responsibilities include development of collections, programs, exhibits, and services that foster academic and community engagement, and providing research and reference services aligned with curricular and scholarly needs.

As faculty members, SJSU librarians participate in library and university governance and engage in scholarship. The AAACNA Director is a member of the University Library Leadership Team (ULLT). ULLT functions as a collaborative group that advances the mission, vision, and values of the Library. The SJSU King Library is a highly collaborative community, and the director will work with colleagues across the University Library to improve and enhance engagement with special attention to the AAACNA Studies Center.

The AAACNA Director is in charge of facilitating and leading the AAACNA Advisory Board. The Board advises the Director and creates opportunities for community connections. The Director is an important participant in advancing the philanthropic interests of the SJSU library, which includes development and management of the AAACNA Center’s endowments and creating opportunities for new gifts. Furthermore, there are opportunities to establish AAACNA as a recipient of grants and positioning the center as a national leader in the field.

In addition to advancing the Center’s programs, collections, and partnerships, the Director will strengthen the infrastructure that supports AAACNA’s long-term sustainability. This includes establishing clear priorities and annual work plans; clarifying roles and decision-making processes; and reporting practices that demonstrate the Center’s impact and inform future planning. The Director will also help ensure continuity by maintaining institutional knowledge, reviewing operating agreements and governance documents by consulting the existing MOU, and aligning the Center’s activities with the Library’s broader strategic priorities.

AAACNA is directly supported and staffed by the Center's Director and up to three faculty librarians who have a portion of their academic assignment in the Center. The affiliate librarians work in close collaboration with the Center Director to advance programs, collections and advocacy.

The Center also holds a unique position for partnerships, which include collaborations with the San José Public Library, SJSU community, and other aligned community organizations.

Subject to administrative discretion, the Director is appointed to a renewable, four-year term, providing the opportunity to guide sustained growth and long-term development of the Center.

What we look for in a potential candidate

We are looking for a visionary , collaborative, and agile leader who is deeply steeped in ethnic studies work. The director of AAACNA will bring a track record in the field along with a passion for the work of the center to the SJSU community. We prioritize equity-minded and curious professionals dedicated to supporting the University Library in achieving its strategic objectives rooted in student success .

Why would you want to join us and what can you expect?

The expert faculty and staff at the University Library are highly committed to excellence and service. You can expect to join a dedicated team of professionals with many opportunities to grow, develop, and lead innovative and SJSU-centered programming and services. The SJSU King Library shares space with the main branch of San José Public Library. As a joint library facility and a member of the 22 universities in the California State University system, there are possibilities to collaborate with multiple external stakeholders and partners across the full spectrum of librarianship.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is a unique partnership between San José State University (SJSU) and the City of San José, which opened in August 2003. It is the first library in the United States to integrate the services and collections of a major university and public library system. Located in downtown San José, the King Library is an impressive 475,000 square feet with nine floors of collections, collaborative work spaces, meeting rooms, exhibit areas, and unique resources dedicated to lifelong learning for all to enjoy. The building serves as the SJSU library, the main library for the San José Public Library system, and as a cornerstone for the entire community.

SJSU King Library brings people, ideas, and information together through its spaces, resources, and expertise to facilitate community building, innovation, and knowledge creation. We are actively engaged in social justice issues through collaborative conversations, organizational review, and assessment. The leadership, faculty, staff, and student employees are dedicated to advancing equity practices in recruitment, retention, resources, and services. SJSU King Library is seeking to increase the diversity of its faculty, and encourages all members of underrepresented groups to apply.

The SJSU King Library and San José State University value institutional excellence and are committed to advancing equity through research, teaching, and service. We enroll more than 40,000 students, many of whom are historically underserved; approximately 45% of our undergraduate students are first-generation college students and 38% are Pell Grant recipients. In addition, we are both a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). SJSU aspires to create holistic learning environments that facilitate both individual and collective transformation. We seek teacher-scholars who cultivate inclusive, empowering spaces for mutual learning, skill-building, and knowledge exchange for all students. Our commitment to lifelong learning supports meaningful connections among faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the broader communities we serve.

We invite all applicants to include a Statement of Institutional Excellence (or incorporate it into your cover letter) to share how your lived and professional experiences will contribute to the SJSU community-particularly in relation to student success. A guide to writing this statement can be found at SJSU Institutional Excellence Statement Guidelines .

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree from a program accredited by the American Library Association or an equivalent international degree plus minimum of five (5) years of experience as a leader of developing ethnic studies services, programming, and collections.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in providing strategic direction and advancing the university library’s outreach and user engagement initiatives across campus and within the broader community.
• Demonstrated success in establishing and sustaining strategic partnerships with academic programs, advisory groups, cultural and community-based organizations through effective communication, while cultivating philanthropic support and securing funding for programs and endowments.
• Expertise providing instruction and research consultations across a range of ethnic studies and interdisciplinary courses, as well as developing specialized collections aligned with AAACNA’s mission and areas of focus. Record of scholarly achievement in relevant areas of specialization, including research that examines or engages with diverse communities, populations, experiences, or perspectives.
• Applicants should demonstrate an awareness of and sensitivity to the educational goals of a socially and economically diverse student population as might have been gained in cross-cultural study, training, teaching, and other comparable experience.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

Priority will be given to candidates who possess one or more of the following:

• Experience working in an academic library or comparable higher education environment.
• Experience incorporating diverse perspectives and culturally responsive practices into instruction, collections, exhibits, programs, or services.
• Demonstrated success leading significant organizational change or complex, multi-phase initiatives.
• Prior supervisory experience.
  
  

Key Responsibilities

• AAACNA Studies Center Director Responsibilities - 0.6 FTE or 60%
  • Provide strategic leadership for the AAACNA Studies Center, establishing priorities and advancing a vision that supports the Center’s mission and the teaching, research, and student-success goals of the University Library and SJSU.
  • Plan, implement, and assess the Center’s programs, exhibits, events, research initiatives, and other activities highlighting the histories, experiences, scholarship, and contributions represented by the Center’s four focus areas.
  • Guide the development, stewardship, visibility, and use of the Center’s specialized collections, including identifying opportunities to improve discovery, preservation, digitization, and access.
  • Build and sustain collaborative relationships with academic departments and programs, faculty and staff associations, student organizations, campus resource centers, advisory groups, community organizations, and other partners.
  • Oversee the Center’s daily operations, including its space, budget, program calendar, policies, workflows, and allocation of available resources.
  • Coordinate the work of employees, student assistants, interns, volunteers, and project teams assigned to Center activities, fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and service-oriented environment.
  • Establish measures of effectiveness, collect and analyze relevant data, communicate the Center’s accomplishments, and use assessment findings to guide planning and continuous improvement.
  • Represent and advocate for the Center within the University Library, across SJSU, and in relevant community and professional settings, while pursuing grants, gifts, endowment support, and other opportunities that strengthen the Center’s programs and collections.
• Liaison Librarian Responsibilities - 0.4 FTE or 40%
  • Support student learning by collaborating with Ethnic Studies and other campus faculty to facilitate the effective use of curriculum-specific information resources.
  • Provide research, reference, consultation, and information literacy instruction to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and researchers in synchronous and asynchronous formats.
  • Select, evaluate, and promote information resources in multiple formats that support the curricular and research needs of assigned academic programs and contribute to the development of the Center’s specialized collections.
  • Maintain knowledge of current and emerging research practices, scholarly communication developments, digital scholarship, and artificial intelligence technologies relevant to the assigned disciplines and academic librarianship.
  • Design, implement, and assess user-centered library services, instructional activities, and resources for assigned academic departments and programs.
• The candidate will participate in shared governance, usually in department, library, and university committees and other service assignments.
• The candidate must demonstrate awareness and experience in understanding the needs of a student population of great diversity - in age, abilities, cultural background, ethnicity, religion, economic background, primary language, sexual orientation, gender identity, and academic preparation - through inclusive course materials, teaching strategies, and advisement.
  
  

Other Duties

Note that all San José State University employees are considered mandated reporters under the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and are required to comply with the requirements set forth in CSU Executive Order 1083 as a condition of employment. Pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) and CSU systemwide policy, some faculty duties may lead to designation as a Campus Security Authority (CSA). CSAs are required to complete Clery Act training and to immediately report Clery incidents to the institution.

Faculty employees must complete CSU employee training as assigned and required based on their role (e.g., Data Security, FERPA, Preventing Discrimination and Harassment, Title IX, Health and Safety). The President may recommend or require compliance with safety measures that decrease the likelihood of COVID-19 transmission or illness and allows the core mission and activities of the campus to continue.

Application Procedure

Click Apply Now to complete the SJSU Online Employment Application and attach the following documents [ departments may specify length of items below (e.g. 2 pages) ]:

• letter of interest
• curriculum vitae
• institutional excellence statement (dedicated statement or addressed in letter of interest)
• statement of teaching interests/philosophy
• research plans
• three references with contact information (only finalists’s references will be contacted)

Inquiries may be directed to the Library Dean, Michael Meth, at [email protected] , or to the Library Chair, Anamika Megwalu, at [email protected] .

Pursuant to California Education Code 89521, applicants will be required to disclose whether they have received a final administrative decision or final judicial decision determining that they have committed sexual harassment within the last 7 years only after a determination is made that they meet the minimum qualifications for the position, and before an offer of employment is extended. Applicants who reach the final stages of the application process must also sign a release form that authorizes the release of information by the applicant’s current and/or former employers to the CSU concerning any substantiated allegations of misconduct.

Conditional Offer

The work for this faculty position may only be performed in the State of California and requires establishing an on-campus presence. Employment is contingent upon US residence and proof of eligibility to work in the United States. Satisfactory completion of background and reference checks (including criminal records and prior employment) are required. SJSU will make a conditional offer of employment, which may be rescinded if the background and reference checks reveal disqualifying information, and/or it is discovered that the candidate knowingly withheld or falsified information. Failure to satisfactorily complete the background and reference checks may affect the continued employment of a current employee who was conditionally offered the position.

San José State University: Silicon Valley's Public University

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley - one of the most innovative regions in the world - San José State University is the founding campus of the 22 universities forming the California State University (CSU) system and the first public university in the West. Recognized as a leading transformative educational institution, San José State is an essential partner in the technological, economic, cultural, and social development of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and California. SJSU is a top-200 school nationally in research funding and second highest in research productivity in the CSU system. Cutting-edge research, world-class scholarship, student-centered learning, diverse communities, and commitment to social justice, allow SJSU to provide life-changing opportunities and advance the public good locally and globally.

Equal Employment Statement

San José State University prohibits discrimination on the basis of Age, Ancestry, Caste, Color, Disability, Ethnicity, Gender, Gender Expression, Gender Identity, Genetic Information, Marital Status, Medical Condition, Military Status, Nationality, Race, Religion, Religious Creed, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Sex Stereotype, and Veteran Status. This policy applies to all San José State University students, faculty, and staff as well as University programs and activities. Reasonable accommodations are made for applicants with disabilities who self-disclose.

Campus Security and Fire Safety Notification

Pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, the Annual Security Report (ASR) is also now available for viewing at https://www.sjsu.edu/clery/docs/SJSU-Annual-Security-Report.pdf . The ASR contains the current security and safety-related policy statements, emergency preparedness and evacuation information, crime prevention and Sexual Assault prevention information, and information about drug and alcohol prevention programming. The ASR also contains statistics of Clery crimes for San José State University locations for the three most recent calendar years. A paper copy of the ASR is available upon request by contacting the Office of the Clery Director by phone at 408-924-1501 or by email at [email protected].

Pursuant to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, the Annual Fire Safety Report (AFSR) is available at https://www.sjsu.edu/clery/docs/SJSU-Annual-Fire-Safety-Report.pdf . The purpose of this report is to disclose statistics for fires that occurred within SJSU on-campus housing facilities for the three most recent calendar years, and to distribute fire safety policies and procedures intended to promote safety on Campus. A paper copy of the AFSR is available upon request by contacting the Housing Office by phone at 408-795-5600 or by email at [email protected].

Advertised: Oct 14 2026 Pacific Daylight Time
Applications close: