Head of Digital Object Metadata Management

Description

The University of California, San Diego Library seeks motivated, creative and collaborative applicants to join the Library as Head of the Digital Object Metadata Management Unit in the Metadata Services Program. This position will provide metadata expertise and oversight for digital collections and content from a wide variety of disciplines.

Responsibilities of the Position

Reporting to the Program Director for Metadata Services (MS), the Head of the Digital Object Metadata Management Unit (DOMM) plays an important role in the Library’s digital collections work; supporting digital projects, the development of tools and processes, and collaborates in the management of the Library’s Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). The Head of DOMM directly supervises one Metadata Librarian and serves as a work leader for the Research Data Curation Metadata Librarian, with the potential to hire another unit staff member in the future. DOMM digital collections responsibilities focus on materials drawn from the Library’s holdings from Special Collections & Archives, Campus Research Data and materials curated by Library subject specialists. The Head of DOMM will collaborate with data providers, other librarians and library professional staff, archivists, IT professionals and other stakeholders in the library to support digital collections projects, development, and initiatives. The Head of DOMM will possess and continue to develop expertise in metadata best practices, emerging trends, technologies and tools and recommend their adoption if they further Library, DOMM and MS goals.

• Coordinates and manages the development and implementation of metadata strategies that support the discovery and curation of the Library’s digital content.

• Leads the selection and development of relevant metadata standards, ontologies, policies, procedures, and workflows for digital resources.

• Provides expertise on digital object metadata standards and practices, including vocabulary control, taxonomy support, database management, and metadata input and edit tools.

• Participates in the evaluation of platforms for storage, discovery, and delivery of digital content.

• Consults on user experience and user services issues related to metadata creation and editing.

• Responsible for the vision and leadership of Digital Objects Metadata Management unit (DOMM), including ongoing communications, planning and implementing services and initiatives, establishing policies and procedures, and setting and monitoring goals.

• Coordinates DOMM’s services with other Library programs and operations and with the Library’s overall goals.

• Provides direct supervision of two librarians and one professional staff member.

• Responsible for personnel actions and management for DOMM, including recruiting, hiring, training, goal-setting, performance management, performance evaluations, succession planning, and staff development.

• Documents projects, standards, policies, procedures and decisions.

• Serves as a member of the Library’s Digital Library Committees including the Digital Library Products Group and the Digital Library Operations Group.

• Shares management responsibility for the Metadata Services Program (MS) as part of the MS Unit Heads Group

Compensation

Salary and level of appointment in the Librarian series commensurate with qualifications and experience and based on the University of California pay scales.

Partner Opportunities Program: UC San Diego recognizes that your employment decisions may involve dual career considerations. UCSD provides online and in-person career and relocation assistance to spouses and partners of academic appointees.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required qualifications

• MLS/MLIS or equivalent advanced degree. Other appropriate degree or equivalent experience in one or more fields related to library services may be substituted.

• Experience in the application and usage of metadata schemas for organizing and managing information.

• High command of information management concepts such as: controlled vocabularies, authority control, and data modeling.

• Experience with tools and techniques for data normalization, mapping, and transformation, such as Open Refine, to facilitate batch processing and ingest.

• Excellent analytical, problem solving, and collaboration skills.

• Excellent interpersonal skills; able to work with a variety of people and situations.

• Strong communication skills; able to present and share ideas clearly and effectively with a variety of audiences.

• Effective in prioritizing multiple concurrent projects in order to meet deadlines in a timely manner.

• Thrives in a collaborative, complex, rapidly changing, and culturally diverse environment.

• Demonstrated knowledge of current metadata trends and issues in academic libraries.

• Capable of advocating for the diverse metadata needs of stakeholders and long term strategic goals

• Strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education and libraries.

• Demonstrated experience successfully managing staff.

• Enthusiasm and commitment to learn new skills in support of program and library goals.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with linked data, RDF and semantic web technologies.

• Experience with entity matching or reconciliation to linked data vocabularies.

• Familiarity with the process of developing and implementing new tools or services.

• Experience with open source software communities, especially those around data repository systems such as Samvera or Fedora.

• Experience with (meta)data wrangling in OpenRefine or Google Sheets.

• Experience with Bash command language, R, Python or other scripting language.