Position: Librarian (Biological Sciences)

Location: Department of Agriculture

Full vacancy announcement available on USAJobs.

This position is located in the National Agricultural Library (NAL), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Beltsville, MD.

The incumbent applies knowledge of digital information delivery, library policies, collection development and general library rules and procedures, and an understanding of library users in a rapidly changing digital environment.

Duties

Maintains awareness of current developments in library automation and technical services through professional development and continuous improvement activities

Develops new resources for key audiences, tests with market research, and follow trends on new tools available to support resource development

Contributes to the development of NAL’s services in literature searching (including systematic reviews, structured searches, rapid reviews, retrospective reviews, etc.) and citation analysis (including bibliometrics, data visualization, etc.).

Creates, manages, and enhances data representing NAL’s digital and physical collections. Supports collection, organization and availability of information on NAL websites.

Responsible for collection development in the specialized fields of water quality, natural resources, alternative farming, rural information, and LTAR.

Prepares reports as needed or requested; maintains statistics; forecasts usage patterns and identifies potential areas of growing demand.

Interacts with customers to answer questions, provide information about NAL’s collections, content, programs and services, recommend avenues for investigation or refer to likely sources of assistance.

Analyzes search-related data and keywords, shifts in research topics, and customer information- seeking behavior to spot trends and identify opportunities for improving NAL collections, programs and services.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

You must be a US Citizen or US National

Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt

Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check

Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served.

Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution

Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/

Federal employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of their duty location. If selected, you will be required to submit documentation of COVID-19 vaccination by November 22, 2021 or before appointment, if after November 22.

The agency will provide additional information regarding what COVID-19 vaccination information or documentation will be needed and how you can request of the agency a legally required exception from this requirement.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

Basic Requirements:

1. Completion of 1 full academic year of graduate study in library science in an accredited college or university, in addition to completion of all work required for a bachelor’s degree;

OR

1. A total of at least 5 years of a combination of college-level education, training, and experience. To qualify on this basis, the applicant must establish conclusively that the education, training, and experience provided a knowledge and understanding of the theories, principles, and techniques of professional librarianship; a knowledge of literature resources; and the knowledge and abilities essential for providing effective library and information services.

Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are:

Qualifying experience for GS- 12 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-11 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience includes providing customer service in support of the library programs or functions; performing searches for literature reviews; and coordinating or collecting biological content for a library.

Applicants must also possess specialized knowledge of Biological Sciences. An applicant’s education or experience must have included or been supplemented by the requirements specified in one of the paragraphs below:

a. A full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university that meets all academic requirements for a bachelor’s degree that included at least 24 semester hours in the specialized field for which the applicant is being considered, e.g., biological science, ; or that included any combination of subjects with at least 15 semester hours in a major subject (such as biological sciences) that is especially applicable to the position for which the applicant is being considered;

or

b. Four years of pertinent experience of such nature and level to provide a knowledge of the basic principles, theories, practices, techniques, terminology and expressions of the appropriate discipline or subject-matter field (BIOLOGY); an understanding of the standard methods, procedures, and techniques of research and analysis in the subject-matter field; ability to acquire additional information about the field and related fields; and some knowledge of literature resources in the field.

Such experience should be equivalent to that which would have been acquired through successful completion of a full 4-year curriculum in an accredited college or university with major study in appropriate subjects, or combination of subjects, as specified in (a) above

or

c. Any time equivalent combination of experience as described in (b) with education as described in (a) above;

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.