Publications Assistant

Position Focus:

The Department of Exhibitions and Publications is responsible for the conceptualization, design, editing, and production of all catalogues and books published by the Yale Center for British Art. The Publications Assistant reports to the Head of Publications and is principally responsible for providing administrative and logistical support to the department; responds to queries from other departments, corresponds with external stakeholders, and coordinates the internal procurement process for the departments. The incumbent assists with the acquisition of images, identifies image sources and, secures permissions to ensure contractual compliance while overseeing permission fee payments. The Assistant collects, labels and maintains the image storage. The Assistant is responsible for coordinating day-to-day operations; assisting, in collaboration with the Department of Imaging and Intellectual Resources, in the acquisition of images used in books published by the YCBA; and other duties as assigned.

Provides administrative support to the Publications Department to support daily office activities, including departmental correspondence, maintaining calendars and departmental files, greeting visitors, answering and screening phone calls and email messages, responding to requests for information, screening and responding to mail, coordinating travel arrangements, scheduling and coordinating meetings and appointments, ordering and maintaining inventory of supplies, preparing and submitting departmental expense reports. Formats, and assists with proofreading and editing of correspondence, press releases, copy, manuscripts, reports, PowerPoints, and other material. Assembles attachments and corresponding material. Reviews outgoing material for completeness, dates, and signatures. Determines administrative, facility, and equipment needs for conferences, seminars, symposia, talks, launches, and demonstrations. Assembles and arranges for necessary items. Maintains contact with authors, printers, faculty, staff, and others associated with publishing work. Prepares materials for the budget. Monitors expenditures and reconciles financial statements. Formats and maintains spreadsheets, databases, and other internal reports. Determines sources of data. Corresponds with contractors, Business Office, and Yale Procurement; tracks invoices from contractors and coordinates timely payment. Schedules and coordinates meetings and appointments. Take notes; summarizes and synthesizes information from/for meetings (including Publications Advisory Committee meetings). Maintains correspondence with YUP New Haven and London about stock, and about calendar and materials for publication launches. Arranges and maintains book storage and deliveries, including maintaining inventory of book stock at West Campus and book stock in shop storage at YCBA; receiving and distributing YCBA titles; receiving and distributing PMC titles. Inventory maintenance and book distribution require some lifting and moving of boxes. Distributes comp copies to authors, volume editors, freelancers, and others on the YCBA Comp List.
Assists with onboarding of Publications staff, including student workers (Bartels, Graduate Research Associates) in consultation with HR and Business office.

Essential Duties

1. Makes stylistic, structural, factual, and grammatical corrections. 2. Writes copy for publication and distribution. Composes other substantive correspondence and written material. 3. Maintains contact with authors, printers, faculty, staff, and others associated with publishing work. Confers with authors on content, form and style. 4. Recommends revisions to manuscripts and illustrations. Performs layout work. Tracks copy through editing and production stages. Coordinates production schedules and ensures that printing deadlines are met. 5. Prepares manuscripts for electronic editing; converts and codes text files. Oversees the preparation of materials for the budget. 6. Monitors expenditures and reconciles financial statements. Formats and maintains spreadsheets, databases, and other internal reports. Determines sources of data. 7. Compiles, synthesizes, and manipulates data. Summarizes findings and writes reports or portions of reports. 8. Formats, keyboards, proofreads, and edits correspondence, press releases, copy, manuscripts, reports, and other material. Assembles attachments and corresponding material. Reviews outgoing material for completeness, dates and signatures. Determines administrative, facility, and equipment needs for conferences and demonstrations. Assembles and arranges for necessary items. 9. Performs additional clerical functions incidental to office activities, including: greeting visitors, answering and screening phone calls, assessing nature of business, providing assistance, responding to requests for information, screening and responding to mail, coordinating travel arrangements, scheduling and coordinating meetings and appointments, ordering and maintaining inventory of supplies. 10. Oversees, instructs and coordinates the activities of support staff.

Required Education and Experience

BA/BS and two years of related experience in the same job family or in book publishing or related enterprise (magazine publishing, library, bookstore, newspaper, yearbook, public relations); or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Required Skill/Ability 1:

Demonstrated detail oriented with strong proof reading and editing skills.

Required Skill/Ability 2:

Proven excellent computer skills. Demonstrated ability with MS Office suite and ability to use databases including TMS (The Museum System). Knowledge of preferred by not required.

Required Skill/Ability 3:

Demonstrated ability to work well under pressure. Duties are deadline driven.

Required Skill/Ability 4:

Ability to monitor expenses, budget, and reconcile financial statements.

Required Skill/Ability 5:

Excellent written and oral communication skills. Must correspond by email and phone with image owners and others to discuss terms of contracts and other departmental matters.

Drug Screen

No

Health Screening

No

Background Check Requirements

All candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle, DOT certification, drug testing and credit checks based on the position description and job requirements. All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of the background check. For additional information on the background check requirements and process visit "Learn about background checks" under the Applicant Support Resources section of Careers on the It's Your Yale website.

COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement

The University maintains policies pertaining to COVID-19. All faculty, staff, students, and trainees are required to comply with these policies, which may be found here:

Posting Disclaimer

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of the essential functions that will be required of the position and should not be construed as a declaration of specific duties and responsibilities of the particular position. Employees will be assigned specific job-related duties through their hiring departments.