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Metadata Librarian for Open Access

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Position description

Department: Cataloging and Metadata Center
Rank and Salary: Assistant Librarian – Librarian ($59,592 - $91,270)
Position Availability: Immediately
Application deadline for first consideration: October 9, 2019

The UCLA Library seeks a highly collaborative and innovative metadata librarian to support a variety of open access initiatives at UCLA. The incumbent will help to shape this new position, strategizing for and implementing means by which metadata can better advance open access goals and improve tools. In addition to creating and remediating metadata for open access resources and striving to make open access materials as findable and accessible as licensed ones, this librarian will also focus on techniques for optimizing the metadata in the institutional repository (eScholarship); obtaining identifiers for scholars to support search precision/recall, identification of missing content, supporting the measure of scholarly output, etc.; and creating descriptions for data sets and other open access resources not currently in scope for the UC Shared Cataloging Program. The ideal candidate will have a firm understanding of the issues surrounding open access as well as cataloging and metadata, and will work closely with other units on campus to help achieve UCLA’s open access goals.

Position Duties
Reporting to the Team Leader of the Subject Specialists Team, the Metadata Librarian for Open Access is responsible for the metadata for open access and freely available resources. The incumbent would leverage new metadata elements to highlight which resources are open access, and investigate other ways to improve metadata for and discovery of open access materials. The incumbent would partner with Library colleagues and programs, including Scholarly Communication, the California Digital Library, the Data Science Center, Digital Library Program, selectors and the Collections Council Digitization Team, Acquisitions, and the Metadata Services and Continuing Resources Management teams in the Cataloging & Metadata Center.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:
• Creates and remediates metadata for open access and other freely available resources.
• Investigates new ways to improve metadata for and discovery of open access materials.
• Tracks and acts as a steward for the description of open access resources, so that they receive appropriate priority and attention in relation to paid-for and tangible materials.
• Collects ideas on new roles existing metadata can play and investigates possible means for achieving these.
• Performs original MARC cataloging for materials in various formats and languages.
• Responds to requests for metadata advice, in support of the UCLA Digital Library.
• Contributes to the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, including NACO, SACO, and BIBCO.
• In consultation with others, strategizes for optimizing the metadata in the institutional repository and its subsequent integration with other discovery tools.
• Advocates for needed standards through professional association work and other channels.
• Writes and maintains documentation of policies and procedures.
• Helps to assess the effectiveness of existing services.
• Collaborates with team leader and department colleagues in the provision of quality control, data transformation, investigation of new tools and standards, and development of standards and best practices.
• Works closely with Library Development to identify and steward donors, collections, and endowed gift funds.

Required Qualifications
• ALA-accredited Master's Degree in Library or Information Science OR significant graduate-level coursework toward such a degree OR equivalent education and experience (subject expertise combined with professional library education and/or experience).
• Familiarity with current and emerging issues, trends, and best practices in the area of open access and scholarly communication.
• Strong service orientation and interest in anticipating and supporting information users' values and needs.
• Knowledge of Resource Description and Access (RDA), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and classification, FAST, MARC21 formats for bibliographic and authority data, and other relevant standards.
• Experience in working with a cataloging utility, such as OCLC, in an integrated library system environment.
• Aptitude for learning new technologies and metadata standards.
• Ability to plan, coordinate and manage projects.
• Evidence of analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to work collegially and collaboratively within and across organizations.
• Ability to work with staff, students and faculty from diverse cultural backgrounds and in a dynamic and complex environment within a large organization.

Desired Qualifications
• Experience cataloging electronic resources.
• Knowledge of non-MARC metadata standards.
• Experience working with linked open data and familiarity with linked data concepts.
• Knowledge of, and experience with programming languages (such as Python, Ruby, etc.).
• Bibliographic proficiency in at least one language other than English.
• Experience in donor relations and stewardship.

General Information
Professional librarians at UCLA are academic appointees. Librarians at UCLA are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This is a represented position. They are entitled to appropriate professional leave, two days per month of vacation leave, one day per month of sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits. Relocation assistance may be provided.

Appointees to the librarian series at UC shall have professional backgrounds that demonstrate a high degree of creativity, teamwork, and flexibility. Such background will normally include a professional degree from an ALA-accredited library and information science graduate program. In addition to professional competence and quality of service within the library in the primary job, advancement in the librarian series requires professional involvement and contributions outside of the library, and/or university and community service, and/or scholarly activities. Candidates must show evidence or promise of such contributions.

Description of Institution and Library
As one of the world's great public research universities, UCLA integrates education, research, and public service so that each enriches and extends the others. From its beautiful neighborhood campus in a uniquely diverse and vibrant city on the Pacific Rim, teaching and research extend beyond the classroom, office, and lab through active engagement with communities, organizations, projects, and partnerships throughout the region and around the world.

UCLA’s diverse community of scholars encompasses nearly 30,000 undergraduates pursuing 125 majors, 13,000 graduate students in fifty-nine research programs, and 4,000 faculty members including Nobel Laureates; Rhodes Scholars; MacArthur Fellows; winners of the Fields Medal, National Medal of Science, Pritzker Prize, and Pulitzer Prize; and recipients of Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, and Golden Globes. UCLA ranks tenth in the Times of London Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, twelfth in the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and fifth in the U.S. by Washington Monthly. The National Research Council ranks forty of its graduate and doctoral research programs among its top ten.

To enable these accomplished students, faculty, and staff to create, disseminate, and apply knowledge for the benefit of global society, the UCLA Library is re-envisioning how it is acquired, synthesized, and shared across academic audiences and with the public. It was among the first academic libraries to develop subject-specialist librarians and to launch a program to enhance students’ research skills. Its Special Collections pioneered the acquisition by public institutions of rare and unique books, children’s literature, pulp and detective fiction, works by or about women and minorities, screenplays, architectural plans, and Los Angeles-related materials and today leads the way in collecting archival resources in digital format such as emails and manuscripts. It has launched innovative data management services and an affordable course materials initiative that have served as models for other libraries.

The Library serves UCLA students, faculty, and staff whenever and wherever they need its resources and expertise. Reconfigured, high-tech spaces and services in its ten campus libraries enable users and librarians to explore and work with print and digital materials collaboratively or individually, pursue new lines of inquiry, and develop new pedagogical approaches as well as novel forms of scholarship. More than 3.5 million people visit annually, while an additional 3.4 million visitors enter online through its virtual front doors.

Whether on campus or online, the Library forms the intellectual heart of UCLA, a hub for cutting-edge discovery, scholarship, and instruction.

Description of Unit
The UCLA Library Cataloging & Metadata Center is the main cataloging unit in the UCLA Library system. The Center serves the cataloging needs of the Arts, Biomedical, Management, Music, Powell, Science & Engineering, and Young Research Libraries, as well as of eight small collections on campus. The Center’s 13 FTE librarians and 23 FTE staff are organized into seven teams: Data Integrity, Discovery, Continuing Resources Management, International, Metadata Services, Licensing and E-Resources Acquisitions, and Subject Specialists. It is primarily responsible for providing access to more than 90,000 titles annually, including locally-digitized and curated materials, in various formats and languages, using a variety of metadata schemas. In addition to providing access to tangible materials, the Center creates metadata in support of UCLA’s Digital Library Program. Members of the Center advise and consult with members of the campus community and others on metadata and cataloging issues. The Center is exploring next generation metadata development through BIBFRAME/linked data and actively participating in national efforts to determine how these changes in data format can improve the user experience and obtain greater benefits from structured metadata investments. The Center is also a long-standing member of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging and a significant contributor to BIBCO, CONSER, NACO, and SACO.

Within the Center, the Subject Specialists Team consists of 3 FTE librarians and 3 FTE library assistants and is responsible for providing intellectual access to materials in the arts, humanities, biomedical and physical sciences, and social sciences. The team performs original monographic cataloging; creates metadata for digital objects; and significantly refines and upgrades monographic records that cannot be used as-is via cataloging-on-receipt in Print Acquisitions or be included in shelf-ready processing.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: UC Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action Policy at http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct

Under federal law, the University of California may employ only individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States as established by providing documents specified in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Employment is contingent upon completion of satisfactory background investigation.

Visit the Jobs @ UCLA Library website at: http://www.library.ucla.edu/about/jobs-ucla-library

Application Requirements

Document requirements
  • Cover Letter - Describing qualifications and experience.

  • Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V. detailing education and relevant experience.

  • References - Names and contact information for three professional references, including current or previous supervisor; contact information only.

Job location

Los Angeles, California