Librarian for Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Posted December 8, 2014

The MIT Libraries seek a forward-looking and enterprising professional familiar with the use and communication of all formats of research information in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) and Engineering Systems to shape and deliver programs of instruction, reference, outreach, and resource selection and to serve as liaison to an active community of users involved in research and teaching at the leading edge of their fields. The EECS undergraduate program has the largest enrollment at MIT, typically including over 20% of all MIT undergraduates. Its graduate program is consistently ranked among the top electrical engineering and computer science programs in the world. The Engineering Systems Division (ESD), a graduate program within the School of Engineering, strives to solve previously intractable engineering systems problems by integrating approaches based on engineering, management, and social sciences, using new framing and modeling methodologies.

The EECS/ESD Librarian serves as the Libraries expert on the research, learning culture, and information practices of the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and the Engineering Systems Division within the School of Engineering. S/he actively works to maintain and build connections within the assigned communities and provides information-related instruction, with an emphasis on engaging these communities in the areas of data management, content management, open access and entrepreneurship. S/he will collaborate with colleagues supporting the management and social science communities to provide instruction and reference to support the programs in ESD. S/he selects and advocates for the acquisition and discovery of research materials for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. S/he also provides reference support, for the Engineering community and in support of the MIT community as a whole. S/he is an active member of the Research Data Services group in the department of Data and Specialized Services, participating in the design and delivery of services related to research data. The EECS/ESD Librarian collaborates with colleagues in other library departments to understand research processes and data needs in engineering and science, utilizing expertise about the user community to inform decision making, and supporting the community’s use of information resources. S/he promotes the Libraries’ repository-based services and provides support for scholarly publishing initiatives, such as recruitment of faculty-created research materials for inclusion in MIT’s Open Access collections. S/he collaborates with liaison colleagues to support the interdisciplinary activities of the EECS and ESD departments.

The EECS/ESD Librarian reports to a manager in the Liaison, Instruction & Reference Services (LIRS) department and is a participating member of the Science and Engineering Community of Practice with fellow liaison librarians. S/he participates actively in system-wide initiatives and serves on committees and task forces and is expected to communicate actively with fellow professionals through research, writing or presentations, and/or professional service activities.

Required Qualifications for the position include:

• MLS/MLIS from an ALA-accredited institution, or an engineering or science degree with a willingness to pursue an MLS/MLIS.
• Experience in or capacity for developing creative and entrepreneurial approaches to promoting and delivering reference, instruction and/or outreach services to a research community.
• Demonstrated interest in and capacity to develop programs for current research trends such as engineering information, research data management, open access, content management, intellectual property issues, funder requirements, entrepreneurship, etc.
• Background or professional experience in or understanding of the research processes in engineering and science.
• Demonstrated interest and enthusiasm for developing and maintaining relationships with user communities.
• A foundation of knowledge and understanding of the roles of libraries and librarians in providing research data management services for communities of researchers.
• Enthusiasm for developing knowledge of EECS literature and information sources for use in developing research level collections.
• A collaborative approach to problem solving and working across organizational boundaries in service of user needs.
• Independence and initiative in accomplishing liaison work, including ability to be flexible and managing competing priorities.
• Facility, mastery, and independent exploration of appropriate technologies in service of user needs.
• Highly developed communication skills, both oral and written
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including ability to effectively collaborate with colleagues

Preferred:

• A degree in an engineering or science field.
• A deep understanding of the literature and information sources used within engineering, sufficient to provide high quality support to advanced students and researchers.
• Experience advising researchers managing primary research data in areas such as development of data management plans, contributing metadata descriptions or schemes, data preservation, or contributing to repositories.
• Knowledge of scholarly communication practices in engineering, particularly trends and challenges related to open access publications.

Salary and Benefits: $54,500 is minimum entry-level salary. Actual salary and appointment classification (Librarian I or II, or other) will depend on qualifications and experience. MIT offers excellent benefits including a choice of health and retirement plans, a dental plan, tuition assistance and a relocation allowance. The MIT Libraries afford a flexible and collegial working environment and foster professional growth of staff with management training and travel funding for professional meetings.

Apply online at: http://hrweb.mit.edu/staffing/. Applications must include cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references. Priority will be given to applications received by January 7, 2015; position open until filled. MIT is strongly and actively committed to diversity within its community and particularly encourages applications from qualified women and minority candidates.

The MIT Libraries support the Institute’s programs of research and study with holdings of more than 2.9 million print volumes and 3.1 million special format items, and terabytes of MIT-owned digital content. In addition, rare special collections, Institute records, historical documents, and papers of noted faculty are held in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Library resources and services are accessible to students and researchers through the Libraries’ website (http://libraries.mit.edu/), and library spaces are widely available for both collaborative work and quiet study. Library resources are supplemented by innovative services for bioinformatics, GIS, metadata, social science and other research data. Through a culture that encourages innovation and collaboration, the MIT Libraries are redefining the role of the 21st century library – making collections more accessible than ever before, and shaping the future of scholarly research. Library staff, at all levels, contribute to this spirit of innovation and to the mission of promoting learning, discovery and the advancement of knowledge at MIT and beyond.

The Libraries maintain memberships and affiliations in ArchivesSpace, arXiv, Association of Research Libraries, the BorrowDirect, Boston Library Consortium, DDI Alliance, DuraSpace, HathiTrust, CLIR/Digital Library Federation, Coalition of Networked Information, Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions, EDUCAUSE, National Digital Stewardship Alliance, NISO, North East Research Libraries, OCLC Research Library Partnership, ORCID, and TRAIL. The Libraries utilize Ex Libris’ Aleph for its integrated library system and have recently deployed EBSCO’s Discovery Service. DSpace@MIT, a digital repository developed over the past ten years by the MIT Libraries, serves to capture, preserve and communicate the intellectual output of MIT’s faculty and research community. Other MIT repositories include: Dome, a second DSpace instance, providing access to a sizable image collection and other digital collections owned by the MIT Libraries; the MIT Geodata Repository for a diverse collection of GIS Data; and MIT’s DataVerse for licensed social science datasets.