Metadata Librarian

Description

Northeastern University Library seeks a detail-oriented metadata professional to join the Digital Production Services team as a Metadata Librarian. Reporting to the Digital Metadata and Ingest Supervisor, the Metadata Librarian will create descriptive, technical, and authority metadata for born-digital and digitized materials in all subjects for the Library, Archives and Special Collections, and University community. They will utilize library and archival metadata schema, controlled vocabularies, and content standards to create, map, and transform metadata in preparation for deposit into the Library’s Digital Repository Service (DRS).

Specific Responsibilities

The Metadata Librarian will create metadata for born-digital and digitized materials in all subjects for the Library, Archives and Special Collections, and University community including, but not limited to, oral histories, archival ephemera, theses and dissertations, historical photography, and newspapers. The Metadata Librarian will combine technical skills with working knowledge of various library and archival metadata schema, controlled vocabularies, and nationally and locally created content, structural, and encoding standards. The Metadata Librarian will make key decisions in the creation of departmental documentation, help evolve project management strategies, be responsible for leading metadata projects, and will provide expertise for metadata needs of interdepartmental, Library-wide, and University-wide collaborations. Along with other members of the Department, they will share maintenance responsibilities for the records in the DRS and will seek out emerging technologies, such as machine learning, to encourage efficiency of departmental procedures.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library science program
• 2-3 years experience creating metadata/cataloging records and utilizing authority control using current metadata structure, content, value, and format/technical standards
• Knowledge of established and emerging national and international standards relating to descriptive, structural, and technical metadata
• Experience with Dublin Core and/or MODS, MARC, AACR2, RDA, LCSH preferred. Familiarity with non-traditional metadata standards, such as TEI, EAD, Darwin Core, FITS, and VRA encouraged
• Proficiency with metadata tools, languages, and systems for creating, editing, and transforming metadata such as XML, XSLT, Oxygen, MarcEdit, OpenRefine, and/or command line tools
• Dedication to optimizing work through application of emerging technologies, APIs, machine learning, artificial intelligence, linked data environments, and familiarity with at least one scripting or programming language, such as Python or PHP
• Knowledge of foundational principles of professional library practices
• Knowledge of trends and issues in academic libraries, scholarly communications, higher education, and metadata developments
• Excellent planning, analytical, interpersonal, supervisory, project management, and organizational skills
• Ability to communicate with technical and non-technical individuals and to prepare project documentation to support training and best practices guidelines
• Must be flexible, self-motivated, detail-oriented, and capable of learning new systems and tools, with good teamwork skills, a strong service orientation, and a demonstrated commitment to staff development and diversity in the workplace

We invite people with various skills and levels of expertise to apply to this position. Candidates who meet some, but not all, of the requirements are also encouraged to apply. We also seek colleagues who are committed to building an inclusive and diverse working environment and who have been and remain underrepresented or marginalized in the field of librarianship - including but not limited to people of color, LGBTQ+ people, individuals with disabilities and applicants from lower-income and first-generation library or academic backgrounds.

About Northeastern University

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.

Our locations—in Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; London; Oakland; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Seattle; Silicon Valley; Toronto; Vancouver; and the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant—are nodes in our growing global university system. Through this network, we expand opportunities for flexible, student-centered learning and collaborative, solutions-focused research.

Northeastern's comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programs— in a variety of on-campus and online formats—lead to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools. Among these, we offer more than 195 multi-discipline majors and degrees designed to prepare students for purposeful lives and careers.

About Digital Production Services and the Library

The Northeastern University Library supports the mission of the University by working in partnership with the University community to develop and disseminate new scholarship. The Library fosters intellectual and professional growth, enriches the research, teaching, and learning environment, and promotes the effective use of knowledge by managing and delivering information resources and services to library users.

The Digital Production Services department enhances access to digital materials by reformatting, describing, and making accessible digital collections that benefit the university community and beyond. We work with university faculty and staff to digitize materials in a variety of formats, including text- based documents, photographs, and audio/visual items to support research, instruction, archival activities and community outreach. We ensure the collections are discoverable and well-described by creating rich metadata at the item and collection level. We also support the library's Digital Repository Service, which is the primary home for storing the digital materials generated in the library and archives. The Digital Production Services department has embraced a hybrid working environment and opportunities for full or partially remote work are available for this position.