Careers

About UMass Amherst

UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship campus, is a nationally ranked public research university offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts and offers a rich cultural environment in a bucolic setting close to major urban centers. In addition, the University is part of the Five Colleges (including Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College), which adds to the intellectual energy of the region.

Job Summary

The Metadata Coordinator provides leadership and vision for cataloging and metadata services at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Coordinator will oversee, develop, implement, and assess proposals, plans and projects to ensure robust and timely access to UMass’s rich scholarly resources and distinctive collections. The incumbent will set priorities for metadata operational needs, recommend and plan metadata initiatives, and facilitate improvements to existing systems and services. The Coordinator will advise on long term metadata strategies relating to discovery, access, retrieval, and management of objects in the Library Services Platform and discovery systems. 

Essential Duties:

• Directly supervises and evaluates the work of the professional and classified staff of the Metadata Unit (MU) within Information Resources Management (IRM).
• Provides mentorship and collaboratively sets annual goals with team members (along with the IRM Department Head, as well as the Associate Dean for Content & Discovery).
• Fairly and appropriately delegates work across the unit, ensuring proper training of staff, regular maintenance of policy and procedures documentation, conducting regular unit meetings, and completing annual review processes by assigned deadlines.
• Leads Metadata Unit meetings and participates in relevant leadership meetings to facilitate communication and sharing of feedback.
• Guides the transitions of staff to using their traditional skills in renewed ways to contribute to the changing needs of the professional metadata landscape
• Coordinates cross functional work between other departments in the Libraries or other units in IRM to achieve established goals.
• Reviews requests, answers questions, and makes appropriate referrals to assist the team in following established HR and business processes (i.e. review and approval of timesheets, supply requests, travel requests, expense reports, etc.).
• Reports unit progress regularly to the Head of IRM and, in collaboration with the Head, makes and communicates, in meetings and email, decisions about changes to workflows, projects, and assignments.  

Other Unit Duties:

• Provides expertise in the creation and maintenance of metadata for description, discovery, access, administration, and preservation of both digital and physical objects produced, acquired, or held by the Libraries. 
• In collaboration with the Metadata Librarians, develops and maintains documentation for departmental and Five College metadata workflows, policies, guidelines and procedures, following national best practices and standards.
• Trains others on metadata creation and management and works closely with staff throughout the Libraries to provide access to the Libraries’ collections.
• Plans and executes metadata maintenance and clean-up projects in the Libraries’ catalog and digital collections platforms. Provides guidance and assistance in the maintenance, evaluation, and remediation of metadata to address better discovery of library resources.
• Compiles and analyzes statistics of the Metadata Unit for internal and external reporting.
• Consults and collaborates with other library staff in the Five Colleges Consortium on metadata capabilities and services. Promotes Discovery and access to the Five College shared catalog.
• Serves as a member of relevant library committees, task forces and working groups. Represents UMass Amherst Libraries in local, regional, national, and international associations.
• Maintains current knowledge of evolving trends and best practices as they relate to technical services.
• Works creatively, collaboratively, and effectively to promote teamwork, diversity, equality, and inclusiveness within the UMass Amherst Libraries and the campus.
• Performs other related duties as assigned in support of the mission and goals of the Libraries and the department. 

Organizational Values

• Commitment to support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) within libraries and the institution.
• Ability to build and sustain effective working relationships and work collaboratively in a diverse and fast-paced environment.
• Purposefully promote a One Library environment for all that encourages inclusion, personal growth, respect, self-reflection, curiosity, and continuous learning.
• Understands responsibilities with respect to conflicts of interest and behaves in ways consistent with both law and with university policy.

Minimum Qualifications

• Graduate degree in librarianship (from a program accredited by the American Library Association) or related field, or combination of an advanced degree in a relevant subject area and experience in libraries, archives, museums, or similar institutions. 
• Minimum of two years of supervisory experience, including a demonstrated ability to establish work priorities, set performance expectations, achieve goals, and direct work in a high-production, rapidly evolving setting in a positive, constructive, flexible, and cooperative manner.
• Project management experience, including a demonstrated ability to establish work priorities, achieve goals, optimize workflows, and communicate status and outcomes clearly.
• Knowledge of cataloging standards and best practices, including but not limited to, Library of Congress Classification, Library of Congress Subject Headings and other LC controlled vocabularies, MARC formats, RDA, LC-PCC Policy Statements, OLAC Best Practices.
• Proficiency in cataloging a variety of materials and formats.
• Experience crafting and maintaining metadata processes and procedures and keeping documentation and training materials current.
• Working knowledge of non-MARC metadata schemes and evolving standards such as BIBFRAME and Linked OPen Data. 
• Experience with integrated library systems or library services platforms, discovery systems, digital repositories, and OCLC cataloging tools.
• Experience working with batch processes and tools to analyze, remediate, and process metadata.
• Ability to work effectively as a team player in maintaining harmonious, cooperative working relationships with staff, faculty, and administrators.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, particularly the ability to explain complex concepts to a wide variety of people in individual and group settings.
• A demonstrated commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Working knowledge of one or more foreign languages.
• Experience with a national cooperative cataloging program, such as NACO or CONSER.
• Familiarity with U.S. Government Publishing Office guidelines and their implementation in RDA and MARC 21.
• Familiarity with serials cataloging best practices and procedures, adhering to the MARC21 and RDA standards as appropriate and following CONSER and LC-PCC guidelines.
• Familiarity with archival cataloging.
• Experience with tools for data manipulation, such as MarcEdit, OpenRefine, Regular Expressions, programming languages, etc.
• Familiarity with developments in reparative and inclusive cataloging.

Work Schedule

• The regular working schedule for this position is Monday - Friday, day hours.
• The incumbent of the position is expected to work on a flexible schedule, which includes some evening, weekend, and holiday hours.
• This position has the opportunity for a hybrid work schedule, which is defined by the University as an arrangement where an employee’s work is regularly performed at a location other than the campus workspace for a portion of the week. As this position falls within the Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP) Union, it is subject to the terms and conditions of the MSP collective bargaining agreement.

Salary Information

•  Librarian III or IV
  1. Librarian III salary floor: $69,500
  2. Librarian IV salary floor: $$78,900
• Salary commensurate with experience

Benefits

University benefits may differ based on collective bargaining agreements (unions). Please see below for the potential benefits MSP Librarians can be entitled to obtain: benefits for the Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP) members and benefits for MSP Librarians positions:

• Human Resources: Faculty & Staff General Benefits
• Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP) Benefits
• MSP Librarian Positions Benefits

Promotion

MSP Librarian positions are eligible for promotion, defined as a change in rank as a librarian from one rank to the next higher rank. The bargaining unit member who gets a promotion shall receive the base salary increase in line with the MSP collective bargaining agreement. You can view the MSP Collective Bargaining Agreement, particularly, article 20, to learn more about MSP Librarian Personnel Actions, including promotion, appointment, reappointment, and continuing appointment.

Application Instructions

Along with the application, please submit a resume, cover letter, and contact information for three (3) professional references.

The University is committed to active recruitment of a diverse faculty and student body. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer of women, minorities, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities and encourages applications from these and other protected group members. Because broad diversity is essential to an inclusive climate and critical to the University’s goals of achieving excellence in all areas, we will holistically assess the many qualifications of each applicant and favorably consider an individual’s record working with students and colleagues with broadly diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds in educational, research or other work activities. We will also favorably consider experience overcoming or helping others overcome barriers to an academic career and degree.