The National Agricultural Library has an opening for the position of
Head of the Continuing Resources Unit within the Acquisitions and
Collection Development Branch. The duties statement for the position
is attached below. Specific information on the position and how to
apply can be found at the USAJOBS site at:
http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=55363914&AVSDM=2007%
2D03%2D22+10%
3A093A10&Logo=0&q=Supervisory+Librarian&FedEmp=N&sort=rv&vw=d&brd=3876&
ss=0&FedPub=Y&SUBMIT1.x=0&SUBMIT1.y=0
======================
The National Agricultural Library (NAL), http://www.nal.usda.gov, the
largest agricultural library in the world, has been serving the
nation’s agricultural community since 1862. Established by Congress,
its mission, stated simply, is “to ensure and enhance access to
agricultural information for a better quality of life”. NAL’s work in
collecting, preserving, and making agricultural information available
is fundamental to the continued well being and growth of U.S.
agriculture, and the development of food supplies for the nation and
the world. NAL has three divisions, the Technical Services Division,
the Public Services Division and the Information Systems Division and
employs approximately 160 federal employees and 40 contract employees.
The Library is located at the Abraham Lincoln Building in Beltsville,
Maryland, near the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and Interstate Route
95/495 (Beltway Exit 25-North), Beltsville, Maryland, USA, 15 miles
northeast of Washington, DC. NAL offers free employee parking. A
courtesy shuttle to the Greenbelt Metro Station and a metro
transportation subsidy are available. NAL is located near the George
Washington Carver Center and the Beltsville Agricultural Research
Center where on-site childcare, cafeteria, and other amenities are
available. Restaurants and shopping are located in close proximity to
NAL. For additional information about the National Agricultural
Library, you can access the NAL homepage at www.nal.usda.gov.
The Acquisitions & Collection Development Branch is responsible for
administering programs for collection development and acquisition of
library materials in various published formats and media in
agriculture and related sciences in all languages from various sources
on a world-wide basis. The Branch formulates NAL collection
development policies and implements them by allocating funds,
reviewing source literature for works of interest, selecting those in
scope, receiving requests and recommendations from NAL service units
and subject specialists, searching databases and records to determine
needs, initiating procurement orders or exchange or gift requests,
preparing descriptive cataloging records for in-process materials,
receiving publications, determining priorities and initiating
processing . The Branch prepares serials data for input to
computerized files; receives, records or discards, and claims issues
of current serials; maintains print and electronic serial holdings
records, determines retention, and binds serial volumes. The Branch
creates or initiates and maintains a variety of records in manual or
automated form for use throughout the Library. The Branch maintains
fiscal records, works closely with fiscal and procurement officers in
USDA service agencies, and initiates payment of invoices through the
National Finance Center. The Branch is responsible for the
licensing/contracting and all other acquisitions functions for NAL’s
DigiTop and electronic resource purchases which are available to USDA
personnel world-wide.
The Supervisory Librarian in charge of the Branch’s Continuing
Resources Unit directs and coordinates the selection, ordering,
payment, and control of continuing resources in agriculture and
related sciences so that these materials are available for research to
USDA scientists and the agricultural and research and development
community on a world-wide basis. Specific duties include:
- Serving as Contract Officer for the purpose of purchasing
serials for the Library and attends relevant courses to maintain an
appropriate level of delegated purchase authority, which involves
approving purchase orders and invoices and maintaining, compiling,
and, as required, submitting statistical and other reports.
- Managing the NAL Exchange Program and gift subscriptions
with U.S. institutions and with organizations around the world, which
involves coordinating the distribution of USDA publications with the
originating agencies, the Departmental Mailing List System (DMLS), and
recipients and monitoring the agencies' performance, solving problems
in this process, and developing procedures related to the NAL Exchange
Program.
- Working closely with the Branch Head and the Electronic
Licensing Librarian to ensure that all e-journals acquired for the
collection are appropriately identified within the acquisitions
module, electronic resource management system, and catalog and that
updates to electronic resource holdings are promptly processed by Unit
staff.
- Ensuring that subscriptions received for NAL’s signature
database, AGRICOLA, are correctly coded, are received in a prompt and
timely manner by Unit staff, and routed to appropriate personnel in
the Indexing Branch.
- Reviewing serial selections to determine choice of
acquisition, routing, and preliminary processing methods and monitor
quality of searches, orders, and provisional cataloging performed by
support staff.
- Serving as liaison with Reference staff, Collection
Services, and Information Center personnel for purposes of filling
patron requests, solving problems related to claiming and filling
publication gaps, and determining workflow between the Branches.
- Meeting with subscription agents (vendors) from domestic
and foreign companies; negotiating terms of agreements; discussing
areas of concern as well as areas of satisfaction; resolving problems;
learning about new service features; monitoring the performance of
subscription agents to ensure compliance with established agreements
and policies and to ensure acquisition of purchased serial materials
in an expeditious manner; and communicating with agents as necessary
to resolve problems and ensure adequate service.
- Ensuring that records for both print and electronic
journals provide the most complete information to NAL patrons.
- Supervising Unit staff and providing technical, subject,
and language expertise needed to acquire materials from all over the
world, which involves communicating continuing resource ordering and
bibliographic maintenance and policy decisions to Staff and to Branch
Head; planning, scheduling, and evaluating work performed by staff
assigned to the Units; and overseeing staff training.
Received on Tue Mar 27 2007 - 01:45:25 EDT