Data Management Specialist

Description

The Library invites applications for a full-time (1.00 FTE), 12-month, tenure track, Assistant Professor position.

Reporting to the Head of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Services, the Data Management Specialist plays a central role in developing and providing services to support the preservation, curation and dissemination of data generated by the OSU research enterprise. The position collaborates with faculty, students, university administration, and research center personnel to identify, manage, describe, preserve and make research data available and accessible. The Data Management Specialist assists faculty and students with managing research data throughout the research lifecycle including assisting with data management planning, research data best practices, data documentation, and ingest of data into domain or generalist data repositories.

The position participates in and helps organize campus initiatives, committees, and task forces related to the research data lifecycle. The position tracks national and international developments in data curation and participates in library, campus, regional, and national discussions regarding cooperative data curation activities and services. The position works with personnel within the library and across the university to increase awareness of and build capacity for addressing research data management issues.

This is a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor, and the Specialist is a member of the University Libraries faculty. Library faculty serve on committees and task forces both at the library and university level and take a leadership role in local, state and national/international library and academic societies and organizations. Librarians are expected to share expertise and results of research with other information professionals via development of new technologies, publication in refereed journals, poster sessions and presentations at professional meetings. Librarians are expected to align their work with the University's and Libraries' mission of supporting student success and research productivity.

Position Duties
50% - Data Curation and Stewardship

• Makes contact and works with faculty and academic units outside of the library to develop and sustain services in support of curation of data produced at OSU.
• Consults with researchers about their data, its management, reuse, and accessibility.
• Assists researchers with creating data documentation and metadata aimed at preparing data for sharing in digital repositories.
• Assists faculty in writing data management plans.
• Assists faculty in meeting funder requirements for providing public access to research results, including data.
• Is informed of, and keeps library and university faculty up to date on, national and international trends, legislation, and pending changes in public access requirements for data
• Collaborates with Center faculty and staff in developing funding agency data deposit services and workflows
• Participates in and leads campus initiatives, committees, and task forces relating to data management and storage.
• Tracks international developments in data curation and participates in library, campus, regional, and national discussions regarding cooperative data curation activities and services.
• Develops and maintains data services web pages that describe campus and funding agency data policies, guidelines, best practices and library services.
• Identifies appropriate venues for data and serves as an intermediary between researchers and appropriate digital repository systems including ScholarsArchive@OSU.

20% - Teaching
Library faculty engage in the formal and informal teaching of internal and external audiences, including other library departments. The Data Specialist develops and delivers training and instruction related to the Libraries' institutional repository and data management in a graduate-level course, visiting lectures, workshops, and forums. Designs and produces training documents, self-guided tutorials, user guides and other print and web-based instructional materials.
Teaching encompasses designing online learning tools, workshops featuring research support, providing one-on-one training and instruction, creating inquiry-based assignments, providing individual research consultations, and developing and offering credit-bearing curricula. The evaluation for the effectiveness of the teaching is based on collected feedback from the target audience as well as peer evaluations both from observations of teaching sessions and the review of teaching materials.

5%: Primary Contact responsibilities (Engagement)
Engages with the OSU community by building relationships with a specific academic unit, promoting library services and resources and contributing to library-wide conversations about strategic directions. Works with other library faculty to identify and allocate resources, share strategies, identify opportunities and develop programs to support OSUL&P's engagement on campus.

10% - Service
Participates in professional societies at the state, regional, and national levels through active participation and leadership roles in committees, association membership, and conference and workshop attendance. Participates in library and university task forces and committees.

15% - Scholarship
Pursues scholarly research and publication in the area of scholarly communication. Results of research/scholarly work should be published and disseminated in peer-reviewed journals, and/or presented at conferences or symposiums.

Minimum/Required Requirements

• A Master's degree by date of appointment from an ALA-accredited program or a foreign equivalent degree, or a Master's or higher degree in a data-intensive discipline
• Demonstrable experience working with data in a research context
• Demonstrated knowledge of issues and technical challenges related to data curation and management
• Familiarity with one or more current scientific data conventions and metadata standards
• Demonstrated capacity to work effectively and collegially with a diverse population
• Ability to develop and execute a research agenda
• Strong technical skills and technical problem-solving abilities
• Excellent written and oral communication skills

Preferred (Special) Qualifications

• One year of relevant research data management and curation experience in an academic, scientific, or corporate setting
• Advanced degree in a data intensive research field
• Experience with one or more commonly used data repository platforms
• An understanding of the research process from conception to completion (i.e. conception, data collection, analysis, synthesis, and publication)
• Experience with digital tools used in data intensive research such as programming, GIS, or statistical software
• Understanding of principles of data documentation and metadata in a research context
• Experience working in an academic library environment
• Grant writing experience
• Familiarity with federal funding requirements for data management
• Evidence of participation in professional societies and organizations
• A demonstrable commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity.

Scholarly Outcomes for Position
15% - of the assigned duties for this position are expected to result in scholarly outcomes. Scholarship for librarians is creative, rigorous, audience-validated and appropriately communicated. It falls into one of the four Boyer categories of scholarship adopted by Oregon State University in 1995: discovery, integration, application and teaching. Faculty librarians engage in scholarly activities for two related reasons: to build knowledge within the academic discipline of library and information science and to communicate useful knowledge to the community of professionals engaged in the day-to-day practice of librarianship. The impact of the librarian's scholarly activity will also be measured in multiple ways: by the significance of their contributions to the body of knowledge within the discipline and by how useful their contributions are to the community of practice within their area of librarianship.

Scholarly activities include:

Conducting research that relates to library and information science and contributes to the appropriate scholarly community.
Communicating the results of research and engaging in professional dialogue with peers locally, nationally and internationally at scholarly and professional conferences.
Communicating directly with the national or international community of practice in their field using appropriate media.
Documenting scholarly contributions in: refereed journal articles; scholarly books and book chapters and conference proceedings.
Archiving and preserving work products in learning object repositories, code repositories, institutional repositories and on professional websites.

Special Instructions to Applicants
To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by 12/31/2015. Applications will continue to be accepted after the full consideration date, until a sufficient applicant pool has been achieved or the position is filled. The closing date is subject to change without notice to applicants.

When applying you will be required to attach the following electronic documents:

1) A resume/CV that includes the names of at least three professional references, their e-mail addresses and telephone contact numbers (Upload as 'Other Document' if not included with your resume/vitae).

2) A cover letter indicating how your qualifications and experience have prepared you for this position.

For additional information please contact: Ginny Kroshus, ginny.kroshus@oregonstate.edu.

OSU commits to inclusive excellence by advancing equity and diversity in all that we do. We are an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, and particularly encourage applications from members of historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, women, individuals with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ community members, and others who demonstrate the ability to help us achieve our vision of a diverse and inclusive community.

Salary is commensurate with education and experience
The anticipated starting salary will be $50,000 - $55,000