Position: Library Technician
Location: Library of Congress
Salary: $40,883 – $53,147

Full vacancy announcement available on USAJOBS.

Summary

This position is located in the Collections Maintenance and Stack Management Section, Collections Management Division, Preservation Directorate, Discovery and Preservation Services.
The position description number for this position is 429736.
The salary range indicated reflects the locality pay adjustments for the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area.
The incumbent of this position will work a fixed work schedule, 8:00a.m. – 4:30p.m.
This is a non-supervisory, bargaining unit position.

Duties

The incumbent reports to the Retrieval or Collection Management Supervisor and is responsible for a variety of activities in support of stack management, collections retrieval, and maintenance. This includes obtaining books for readers utilizing the Library of Congress (LC) Integrated Library System (ILS) and other online systems through which requests are submitted and answered. Incumbent must possess an in-depth knowledge of collections and storage areas, thorough familiarity with both manual and automated databases, and thorough understanding of cataloging and classification practices. Duties may require assignment to any of the book stacks in the Jefferson or Adams Buildings or to work with the Collections Officer in collections material maintenance. Critical to this position is the ability to work with a high degree of accuracy, to produce a large quantity of work, often under severe time constraints, and to interact effectively with co-workers.

Work is primarily done in collections storage areas which are often at a lower temperature than a standard office environment. Work is physical in nature requiring frequent standing, walking, pushing, stooping, and stretching. Work requires ability to perform moderate lifting – up to 44 lbs. A pre-employment physical is required of the incumbent and an on-duty physical every 3 years.

The supervisor or a senior employee provides instructions on recurring collection retrieval assignments by indicating what is to be done, applicable policies and procedures to follow, deadlines, and priority of assignments.

Following extensive supervisory or staffer directions, instructions, library rules, procedures and operations, retrieves materials from the collection. Applies judgement in retrieving materials that are simple and straight-forward to locate. Receives retrieval requests through a number of methods including paper call slips, Automated Call Slip (ACS) and/or other automated request systems. With some projects, incumbent follows general guidelines on what to pull, and must adhere to these guidelines which might include criteria such as item condition, date of publication, or format.
Following a number of established procedures and specific guidelines available in the form of extensive library procedures rules, and operations, incumbent performs an array of activities involved in maintaining the collections, including ensuring that collections are in the proper order, safe from hazards and readily retrievable when requested.

Uses judgment to identify and select the most appropriate procedure to use, chooses from among several established alternatives, or decide which precedent actions to follow as a model. Refers situations requiring significant judgment to the supervisor or others for guidance or resolution.

Arranges, sorts and re-shelves materials returned to the stacks according to the prescribed order for that portion of the collection. Maintains assigned areas to ensure that each item is in proper order according to collections management and maintenance guidelines for each collection. Frequent shelf reading of the collections, i.e., ensuring that the items on the shelves are in proper order, is a critical component of collections maintenance. Incumbent uses multiple shelving and classification arrangements including LC Classification, fixed location arrangement and others utilized by the Library to ensure that collections are properly shelved, arranged and accessible for use.

Identifies and removes items suspected of containing errors in labeling and/or cataloging and forwards items to the Preservation Directorate, the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, or other Library units for further determination or disposition. Withdraws materials in need of rebinding, relabeling and/or repair, forwarding these primarily to the Binding and Collections Care Division in the Preservation Directorate for appropriate correction. Effects minor shifts necessitated by growth or rearrangement of collections. Ensures that the collections storage areas are neat and orderly.

The incumbent must have an in-depth understanding of a number of databases. Most importantly, the incumbent must be thoroughly familiar with the features and proper use of the ACS and the LC ILS in order to interpret and follow information provided for each retrieval activity, to fill requests, to know when it is acceptable to substitute an alternate edition, and to check the online ACS request screen for another copy when copies may be in different locations.

Relocation expenses will not be authorized for the person(s) selected under this vacancy announcement.

Position: Librarian
Location: Library of Congress
Salary: $61,947 – $80,532

Full vacancy announcement available on USAJOBS.

Summary

This position is located in the U.S. Special Acquisitions Section, U.S./Anglo Division, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate, Discovery and Preservation Services.
The position description number for this position is 058498.
The salary range indicated reflects the locality pay adjustments for the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area.
The incumbent of this position will work a flexitime work schedule.
This is a non-supervisory, bargaining unit position.

Duties

This position is located in any of the divisions that come under the Directorate of Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access. It is a hybrid position that combines major duties of both the acquisition specialist and the cataloger. The selected librarian will be heavily focused on collections acquisition, particularly major gifts, purchases, approval plan, and routine gifts. The position focuses heavily on acquisitions with business acumen integral to the role. There may be a foreign language requirement for this position depending on the geographical area for which cataloging or acquisitions functions are being performed. For example, staff selecting and cataloging materials from South America need knowledge of the Spanish language (See attached listings of approved languages). The incumbent may use a specific foreign language to perform the following major duties.

Catalogs a variety of materials in an automated cataloging environment where the bibliographic characteristics of the material are relatively easy to determine and cataloging decisions are made within established standards. Searches entries in automated and manual catalogs. Assigns headings to catalog entries. Selects and assigns classification numbers. Establishes personal and corporate names and uniform titles for inclusion in the name authority file. Establishes and recommends subject headings for inclusion in the subject authority file and classification schedule. Creates and revises bibliographic records, authority records, and classification schedules. Performs content designation of bibliographic and authority records. Performs research in the cataloger’s reference collection, online databases, the world wide web, and the collections of the Library. Recommends resolutions to problems and inconsistencies in the cataloging process.

Provides services and deals with materials that are non-technical in nature, of limited technical complexity, or easily acquired. Coordinates proper purchasing information, correct bibliographic identification, and correct coding in the information system. Contacts dealers, subscription agents, vendors, overseas offices, government agencies, and/or exchange partners to coordinate the order process. Drafts formal acquisition agreements from templates and in coordination with stakeholders. Consults acquisition reference material to determine whether recommended item is appropriate for purchase, copyright claim, exchange, gift, loan, or other type of acquisition. Examines recommendations for acquisition to identify processing and custodial requirements and to identify acquisition of out-of-scope materials. Maintains liaison with recommending officials and subject specialists to understand their needs. Consults acquisition reference material to determine whether recommended item is appropriate for purchase. Reviews and approves invoices for payment for all formats of material. Determines availability of funds.

Obtains, analyzes, and organizes information using standard reference tools and established techniques and practices. Analyzes and organizes standard subject data to determine its relationship to the existing collections, for proper main entry, and the need for added entries. Analyzes material to determine subject content. Applies standard rules, guidelines, and reference tools and established techniques and practices. Participates in formulating plans for changes and improvements to cataloging-related issues.

Uses standard methods, techniques, concepts, and principles to perform assignments related to collection development support, with review by supervisor, senior staff and/or recommending officers. Assists in examination of incoming shipments to select items appropriate for the collections, in accordance with established guidelines. Assists in
examination of recommendations for acquisition to identify processing and custodial requirements, and to ensure conformity with established guidelines. Participates in formulating plans for changes and improvements to collection development policies.

Works to maintain personal contacts and cooperative work relationships in order to provide or exchange information. Consults with Team Leader and cataloging policy staff to recommend changes and additions in descriptive and subject cataloging rules. Offers suggestions and advice to Team Leader on operational and technical problems. Collaborates with Team Leader and other staff in planning and implementing team activities including: workflow procedures, team priorities, cataloging projects of an experimental nature, goal setting and strategies for meeting team production goals.

Assists others inside and outside the Library with acquisitions, language, subject and cataloging problems.

Position: Public Services Librarian
Location: Zimmerman Associates, Inc.
Salary: $48,000 – $52,000

Full vacancy announcement available on ALA Joblist.

Description

The Public Services Librarian will be responsible for providing customer service to patrons, including, program development, training and direction to library patrons. Works with Patrons to access a variety of information resources ranging from conventional to those available by advanced technology.

Hybrid opportunity: Some workdays in office (Washington, D.C.) and some workdays will work from home.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in library/information science from an ALA-accredited institution
• Preferred experience with reference in legal, legislative history, congressional, and regulatory research
• Experience with front desk support, reference, reference development
• Experience with outreach and developing new patron services
• Work experience with U.S. Federal document collections
• Strong skill/experience using an Integrated Library System (ILS), preferably OCLC WMS
• Experience working with Lexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline or CLEAR Investigative database software
• Experience in and/or practical working knowledge of library automation, personal computers (PC), and simple PC troubleshooting techniques.
• Experience using WORD, Excel, or other PC applications
• Knowledge of HTML or experience using website development software (e.g. Dreamweaver) desired.
• Other Assignments

Position: Electronic Resource Access Coordinator
Location: American University Library

Originally posted on the Potomac Technical Processing Librarians (PTPL) listserv.

The person in this position will provide access, discovery, and troubleshooting support for the library’s electronic resources including journals, databases, e-books, and aggregator collections via the library’s library services platform, remote authentication server, internal tracking systems, and the A-Z database list. Due to the changeable nature of the field, incumbents in this position should have an interest in continuously learning and upgrading technical, library-related, and interpersonal skills.
The Acquisitions and Resource Management team is customer-focused. We love to learn and share what we know; value collaboration and data-driven decision making; and enjoy adapting our processes and services to the continually evolving electronic resources landscape.