Indigenous Theatre Library Collection Manager
Theatre Alberta is a provincial arts service organization and registered charity that represents theatre artists, enthusiasts, students, educators, and community and professional theatre companies from across the province.
We are dedicated to encouraging the growth of theatre in Alberta by providing the highest quality programs and services:
- Canada’s largest independent fully-circulating theatre library.
- Workshops and camps for teens and adults, urban and rural.
- Online resource sharing services for auditions, employment, and productions.
- Theatre news, publications, and advocacy.
We require an Indigenous theatre library collection manager who will be responsible for overseeing the creation of a new collection management policy for Indigenous theatre and performance materials in the Theatre Alberta library including, but not limited to:
- The creation of an inventory of the current Indigenous theatre materials within the Theatre Alberta library collection and the subject headings for those materials.
- Research subject headings, controlled vocabulary, and emerging practices for cataloguing Indigenous performance art used in other libraries.
- Coordinate the engagement of an Indigenous theatre advisory council to guide and consult on policy development, including the preparation of knowledge, data, and research for the council’s consideration.
- Schedule and attend meetings and implement recommendations of the Indigenous theatre advisory council.
- Draft the Indigenous theatre collection management policy, identifying potential future work, strategies, and research.
- Participation in Theatre Alberta’s overall strategic mission and direction.
Applicants should be Indigenous information professionals passionate about Indigenous knowledge stewardship and protection, theatre, and libraries. Applications should enjoy working independently and as part of a team. Excellent communication, research, and project management skills are required. Previous involvement in the theatre and/or not-for-profit industries will be considered assets.
This is a full-time 12-month term position, with benefits after three months. Due to the nature of Theatre Alberta’s work and programs, some evening/weekend hours and travel may be required. The Theatre Alberta team is currently working remotely but may transition back to the office if/when safe to do so. Employee safety and comfort will be prioritized. While the Theatre Alberta Library and the majority of the staff team are based in Edmonton, we welcome applicants for this position from other locations in Alberta.
Position term is expected to be March 2022 through February 2023.
Annual salary range $45,000 to $47,000.
By February 10, 2022, please forward a detailed letter highlighting your interest and qualifications, as well as a resume, to Keri Mitchell, Executive Director, keri@theatrealberta.com.
Theatre Alberta is grateful for the support of the Edmonton Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Alberta Culture for the Indigenous Theatre Library Collection project, as well as to our Indigenous colleagues across Alberta and Canada who have supported and consulted on the project to date.
More About The Project
In the coming year, Theatre Alberta will start work on a major project in our library—the Indigenous Theatre Collection. We will hire an Indigenous Theatre Collection manager (librarian) and engage an Indigenous theatre advisory council with up to five artists from across the province to develop a new, separate collection management policy for Indigenous theatre materials in the Theatre Alberta library. The new policy will guide the celebration, purchasing, cataloguing, and promotion of plays and theatre reference materials written by Indigenous playwrights, performers, and theatre artists.
The project will be led and managed by Indigenous information professionals and theatre artists who have broad community/cultural knowledge and authority to inspire participation and collaboration.
The Theatre Alberta Library is one of the only remaining independent/public theatre libraries in Canada. We feel it is important that we actively participate in national conversations and local consultations about decolonizing cataloguing*, as well as how we actively make space for past, present, and future manifestations of Indigenous storytelling practices. If the Theatre Alberta Library does not do this work in service of published and unpublished Indigenous theatre, some of these plays and other theatre materials may not benefit from the overall systemic changes to knowledge organization and information retrieval that Indigenous artists and Librarians across Canada are seeking to address.
Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Recommendation: Decolonize access and classification by addressing the structural biases in existing schemes of knowledge organization and information retrieval arising from colonialism by committing to integrate Indigenous epistemologies into cataloguing practice and knowledge management.
This project comprises the initial labour and consultation required to develop new policies for an Indigenous theatre collection in the Theatre Alberta Library. In the future, we also hope to develop a dedicated, accessible, and culturally significant physical and online space within the library to responsibly steward Indigenous materials, and plans to celebrate and promote the Indigenous Theatre Collection provincially and nationally.
Indigenous playwrights and theatre artists interested in being on the project’s advisory council can also let us know now, and we’ll be sure you receive that application when it is ready.
Email us at library@theatrealberta.com.
