Building a Collaborative Position Description Archive as a Community of Practice

Analyzing position descriptions provides insights into new and emerging trends, especially as the role of academic and research libraries continues to evolve, and new position types and new ways of organizing work emerge. Personnel officers and other library leaders frequently collaborate by sharing position descriptions in an effort to understand work assignments at peer institutions. The Association of Research Libraries Position Description Bank is an important digital collection produced as a result of the engagement of a community of practice. It provides a valuable resource that supports library leadership and administration in an era of tremendous and rapid change.