The University of Arizona Libraries’ Delivery, Description, and Acquisitions department seeks a dynamic and service-oriented professional to lead the Libraries’ discovery efforts and facilitate the integration and maintenance of the Library Services Platform in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
Under the direction of the Delivery, Description, and Acquisitions department head, the Systems and Discovery Librarian/Specialist plays a significant role in the management and development of the Libraries’ discovery environments. The incumbent will provide vision, leadership, and creative thinking to manage and improve discovery of and access to analog and digital content through a wide variety of activities (including configuration, metadata analysis, maintenance, and enhancement). The Systems & Discovery Librarian/Specialist will play a pivotal role in the Libraries’ implementation of Alma and Primo, primarily in providing leadership with Primo, but also through their expertise in diagnosing, troubleshooting and solving problems pertaining to the LSP, remediation projects, and metadata standards. This is a continuing-status (equivalent to tenure), academic professional position. Depending on experience, candidates may be hired at either the Assistant or Associate rank, and as continuing-eligible or with continuing status. Incumbents are members of the General Faculty of the University of Arizona and are entitled to all accompanying rights and privileges granted by the university and the Arizona Board of Regents. Retention and promotion are earned through achievement of a record of excellence in position effectiveness, scholarship, and service. Duties Ensures an excellent customer service experience in discovery of resources, both physical and electronic through our new discovery tool, Primo, for internal and external users of UA Libraries. Overall leadership of the Libraries’ discovery tool, Primo. This is a leadership role in the implementation of Primo. Duties include but aren’t limited to developing, configuring, enhancing, and maintaining Primo and its supporting systems (e.g. knowledgebase and link resolver), leading a cross-departmental oversight committee, maintaining vendor relationships, collaborating with Library IT on UI development needs, leading the creation and maintenance of training materials for all constituencies both internal and external, collaborating on an effective communication plan, and partnering with library staff to employ usability testing methods and data analysis to assess the effectiveness the product. Diagnose and solve problems relating to the Discovery Layer and the LSP (Alma) including ingestion, automation, interoperability, and customization and coding of the user interface. Collaborates with stakeholders (groups and individuals) at all levels across the organization to set a plan for measuring success around our discovery tools at UA Libraries that is in alignment with the mission and strategic priorities. Investigates and works on solutions collaboratively and iteratively to promote discovery tools into other access points beyond the Libraries. (e.g. course management systems). Interfaces extensively with all customer facing units, services, and personnel to assure two-way communication on customer needs that directly inform decision-making regarding discovery. Collaborates closely with user experience colleagues at the Libraries to assess and improve the search and discovery experience for end users. Collaborates on integration points for non-MARC digital collections across the Libraries (e.g. Special Collections and Office of Digital Innovation and Stewardship). Within DDA, works closely with librarians and staff on management of backend processes and systems, such as our Knowledgebase, authentication, metadata analysis, normalization projects, remediation, and solutions to manage authorities and identifiers. Diagnoses and troubleshoots issues related to the Library Services Platform in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. Works with library staff on metadata needs, including remediation, scripting, and researching and adhering to national and international standards as appropriate. Monitors and evaluates technological innovations, making recommendations as appropriate for the adoption of new technologies. Participates with collection management librarians and staff as part of the Collection Management Framework, under the direction of the Senior Information Resources Officer. Expected to have a thorough understanding of current library services platforms. Could eventually include supervisory duties. Other duties as assigned. Minimum Qualifications Master’s degree in library/information science from an ALA-accredited institution or advanced degree in a relevant field. Demonstrated experience and knowledge of Library content discovery applications and systems. Demonstrated experience and knowledge of Library Services Platforms from a back-end systems perspective. Demonstrated experience and knowledge of accessibility standards for websites and online resources Demonstrated knowledge of traditional and emerging trends in metadata standards, system interoperability, and linked data. Evidence of the ability to achieve continuing status (equivalent to tenure) if hired into librarian track, including contributing to the information/library profession and to fulfilling the responsibilities of a library faculty member through service and scholarship. ---- Brought to you by code4lib jobs: https://jobs.code4lib.org/jobs/27797-systems-and-discovery-librarian
