Position Detail - Systems & Discovery Librarian

Position Type: Staff Full-Time (Hybrid)

Hours per week: 37.5   

Weeks per year: 52

Work Schedule: M-F, 8:30-5; occasional nights and/or weekends as needed. 

Annual salary: $62,000-$63,000

Department Summary & Job Purpose:

Mount Holyoke College’s Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS) Division empowers a diverse and inclusive learning community equipping every person to purposefully engage the world. We connect people with the information, expertise, spaces, and technologies that enhance their work and fuel scholarly endeavor. Mount Holyoke College is part of the Five Colleges, Inc. Consortium along with Amherst College, Hampshire College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Reporting to the Head of Discovery Services, the Systems and Discovery Librarian will join a collaborative team that connects the Mount Holyoke Community to the many information resources available to them virtually and in person. As a member of the Discovery Services department within Discovery & Access (DnA), this person works to maximize best possible cross-system functionality, partnering with colleagues to optimize all aspects regarding the discovery of and access to electronic and physical resources. In close collaboration with others in LITS and across the Five Colleges, the Systems and Discovery Librarian guides and directs the management and integration of the Library’s suite of discovery and digital access platforms with remote access & authentication systems. This person strives for optimal systems’ integration in support of exposing the broadest range of information resources to our users with the overarching goal of providing seamless, user-friendly library services within the Five Colleges environment.

Each member of the Discovery Services department actively promotes the commitment of the College and LITS to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by implementing best practices in the maintenance of and in providing access to the Libraries’ materials and resources.

The Systems and Discovery Librarian will join LITS and the Five Colleges Libraries during our second year fully live using the open source library services platform FOLIO, hosted by EBSCO. The consortial undertaking offers us a unique opportunity for collaboration with our Five Colleges colleagues as we continue to evolve workflows, refine, and imagine the possibilities of our single tenant FOLIO instance together.

Core Job Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Provides technical leadership for and works in collaboration with others to manage a suite of information systems employed by the library.
• Serves as lead contact with systems vendors and LITS colleagues to facilitate systems integrations, troubleshooting library systems problems, managing systems security, and applicable system upgrades.
• Consults with colleagues in LITS to gather input and implement improvements to public facing library interfaces.
• Works closely with the Head of Discovery Services in bridging the gaps between systems, discovery, and access.
• Devises and brings forward need-based solutions and workarounds to address system limitations.
• Keeps abreast of new trends, tools, and applications as well as engages in professional development opportunities.
• Contributes to a continuous process of assessment to ensure DnA’s success in advancing the College’s evolving goals in light of pedagogical, information, and technology changes.
• Maintains a high level of quality customer service standards responding to questions and problems.
• Actively contributes to Five Colleges working groups, FOLIO SIGs, and local meetings. May need to travel to participate in consortia and professional meetings and events.
• Furthers the College's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals by engaging with colleagues to create a welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and user-centered environment in which a diverse population of students, faculty, and staff can thrive.
• Participates in and attends major campus-wide or LITS sponsored events, which may be held at night, on weekends or holidays, which are part of every employee's core responsibilities.
• Performs duties primarily onsite; however, a hybrid work modality, combining in-library and remote work, may be subject to approval with periodic review in alignment with the College’s Flexible and Adaptive work processes.
• Performs related duties as assigned, including serving as backup to DnA colleagues as needed.

Qualifications: 

• MLS/MLIS from an ALA-accredited program, or education and experience sufficiently relevant to substitute for the ALA-accredited degree
• 3-5 years of library experience, preferably in an academic environment
• Familiarity with general practices and standards for library cataloging, metadata, and technical services workflows.
• Experience with integrated library systems, e-resource management systems & principles and other library technologies, such as but not limited to Link Resolvers, EZProxy, OpenAthens, Shibboleth, ILLiad, or ARES, etc.
• Familiarity with at least one programming or markup language (such as, but not limited to XML, Perl, JSON and/or PHP), the workings of APIs, and SQL.
• Experience troubleshooting library specific hardware, e.g. label printers, production scanners etc.
• Demonstrated ability to set priorities, juggle multiple tasks without losing track of any, and to guide projects to fruition.
• Demonstrated ability to learn, implement, and instruct others about or in the use of new technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to introduce, nurture, and establish change.
• Excellent listening, oral, and written communication skills, including the ability to understand the needs of staff and explain complex concepts to staff with differing levels of expertise.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with transferring bibliographic records between systems and using MARCedit.
• Familiarity with image-based or text-based digital repositories (such as ContentDM, MDID, Omeka, Digital Commons, DSpace, Fedora, etc.).
• Experience reviewing and/or negotiating e-resource licenses and related documents.
• Experience using collaborative tools such as Github, Slack, and Confluence.
• Demonstrated ability to support and foster development of colleagues.

We are actively building an organization that values the following skills and abilities. We want to talk with candidates who see themselves broadly reflected below:

• Works effectively in both independent and team environments.
• Embraces the opportunity to grow within a collaborative, accessible, and culturally diverse environment.
• Possesses a love of learning, the ability to think critically with a dash of ingenuity, and enjoys learning new technology skills.
• Retains the open-mindedness to change their mind and has the confidence to admit to not knowing something as well as to learn and move on from mistakes.
• Shows sensitivity to the diverse needs of others at all skill levels.
• Appreciates that there are implications in library discovery that relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Exhibits excellent and creative interpersonal, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills, and an enthusiastic service orientation.

Physical Demands: 

• Ability to operate office equipment and computers to perform essential duties and responsibilities.
• Ability to work with printed materials.
• Ability to exert up to 10 pounds of force frequently and to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Ability to independently lift up to 25 lbs occasionally.
• Ability through close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; and extensive reading.
• Ability to effectively communicate via the telephone, email, virtually, and in person.

Working Conditions: The employee is not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions (such as in typical office or administrative work).